I just feel bant lets us still play enough of merfolk good stuff without having to resort to other creatures if in some magic christmas land mono-blue was no longer viable somehow. I can admit esper would be pretty sweet as we get all those great discard spells. I do like stubborn denial, even with 2 lords out and something like a silvergill that card is online...or 2 lords and a muta
Okay, here is my report from my 4 rounds of Modern Win-A-Box at Channel Fireball on Sunday.
Round 1 vs UWR Delver
This deck was brewed by a friend of mine. Typical cars from the old UR Delver list are present, like Lightning Bolts, Delver of Secrets, Young Pyromancer, Grim Lavamancer, etc. The oddball cards in the deck, which were more effective in practice than they would seem, were the maindeck Angel's Grace and Pact of the Titan. The idea of the deck is to cast a few Pact of the Titan and then playing Angel's Grace on the next upkeep to keep from dying. Angel's Grace also gives the added benefit of surviving a turn from an opponent who overextends with a lot of creatures
Game 1: Opponent casts Turn 1 Delver, into 2 Delvers on turn 2 and another one on turn 3. They all flipped. I couldn't keep up with him at this point.
Sideboard: +4 Spell Pierce, +3 Chalice of the Void, -2 Thassa, God of the Sea, -4 TIdebinder Mage, -1 Silvergill Adept
Game 2: I play a Chalice on 1 on turn 2 while my opponent taps out for a turn 1 Delver. He has no answer.
Game 3: This was the most interesting game of the 3. I was able to flood the board with a bunch of creatures. The back breaking cards for him were the 2 Spell Pierces in hand and 2 Cursecatchers on the board. His only out in the deck was a single Blasphemous Act, which ended up being at the bottom of his deck.
Round 2 vs UR Twin
This is a matchup that I haven't had a chance to test against. I felt like no matter what happened, as long as my opponent was not able to resolve his combo, I would have no trouble outracing him.
Game 1: I proceeded to Spreading Seas as many of his Red mana sources as possible. To be safe, I also Dismember'd any Deceiver Exarch or Pestermites, just in case.
Sideboard: +4 Spell Pierce, +2 Torpor Orb, -4 Tidebinder Mage, -2 Master of Waves
Game 2: a Turn 1 Vial into Cursecatcher prevented my opponent from casting an Anger of the Gods when he really wanted. He also stumbled on his mana, ending the game with only 1 Mountain, 1 Sulfur Falls, and 1 Tectonic Edge on the field. On turn 4, I attempted to bait a counterspell by casting Spreading Seas on his Sulfur Falls, which he used his only Blue Mana to Spell Snare it, and I slammed a Torpor Orb on the board.
Round 3 vs Abzan
This is the matchup that I have been looking forward to playing against since I built the deck. This is such a good matchup for my build. Maindeck Tidebinder Mages, Thassas, and Spreading Seas are what won this match for me.
Game 1: Tidebinder Mage on his Tarmogoyfs and Seige Rhino really did a number on him. This, coupled with the single Spreading Seas I resolved on his Godless Shrine was too backbreaking for him.
Sideboard: +4 Tectonic Edge, +3 Spell Pierce, -4 Master of Waves, -2 Mutavault, -1 Cavern of Souls
Game 2: I had a slow start, and was overwhelmed by the 2 Tarmogoyfs that he had in play. I couldn't recover from this, along with all of his hand disruption and removal spells.
Game 3: This is the game that Thassa really showed her true powers. The game went as every Abzan player wants it to. 1 for 1 trades until we are in top deck mode. Except, I had an active Thassa and double Aether Vials on the board. 2 Islands on the field was all I ever needed. Thassa allowed me to filter all of the lands that were on top to the bottom of the deck to draw the gas cards I needed to pull ahead of him. Eventually, I had enough Merfolk on the board to just sit back with them, while Thassa bashed in for 5 unblockable damage every turn.
So why do I think Thassa does so much work? Because she is a card that MUST be answered by most decks, or else she just allows us to get completely out of hand. With as few draw spells as we run in the deck, being able to dig a little deeper every turn and filter our draws is extremely important in increasing the efficiency of the deck. With as many UU permanents that we have in the deck, she eventually becomes a HUGE threat and a fast, unblockable threat. If she eats a Path to Exile, then great, that is another one of our lords that gets to live to keep our Merfolk as huge as possible. If she doesnt, then great, we have an indestructable 5/5 that can't be blocked and that filters our draws.
Anyone who says she is terrible in this deck REALLY needs to test with her more. I have never been sad to draw her in any game I've played thusfar, except, maybe against Infect.
I anticipated seeing mostly Twin, Junk, 'Murica, and Burn. Our local Affinity player was out of town for the weekend so unless he loaned his deck to anyone I figured Affinity was off the table. All the better for me.
Match 1: Storm 2-0
Game 1: I thought this was twin for 90% of Game 1, he really didn't do much besides Serum Visions and Probe and I kind of ran him over with T1 Vial, T2 Vial in a Cursecatcher and cast another Cursecatcher leaving mana to bluff Spellpierce, T3 Vial in a Lord of Atlantis after casting Kira with a Cavern on Illusion. As a last ditch effort he tries to go off at 1 life and wiffs.
Game 2: I completely forgot to board out Spreading Seas but it worked out because Game 2 I kept him off red for 5+ turns.
Match 2: Jeskai Tokens 1-1-1
Game 1: Mull to 6 off a 5 lander. I was convinced this was a RW burn deck for all of game 1. He gets in for 19 (!!!) points of damage over 3-4 turns with 2 Monastery Swiftspears and a fist full of burn spells, and I deal around 20 damage which still isn’t enough because of 3 lightning helixes. I stabilize at 1 life and win with a Master of Waves.
Game 2: It is now that I realize my opponent is playing Jeskai Tokens as a Turn 2 Young Pyromancer hits the board. Turn 3 Monastery Mentor followed by a bunch of tokens gums up the board for me. With about 8 minutes left in the round it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to clear his board fast enough for the win or to stall long enough for the win either, so I concede and we quickly shuffle up for game 3.
Game 3: Opening hand of 2 land, 3 lords, an Aether Vial, and a Vapor Snag. Snap Keep.
Bashing back and forth, enter extra turns. Oh boy. I manage to get him down to 2 and neither one of us could close it out. Looks like it’s a draw.
Match 3: Twin 2-1
Unfortunately my notes for this are terrible so I have very little recollection of what happened.
Game 1: Tidebinder Mage repeatedly punches him through the face for the win.
Game 2: Mull to 5, pray for good topdecks. Swan Songs a plenty but not enough colored land to win the war.
Game 3: Built up a board, repeatedly Vapor Snagged his exarch in response to twin casting. Was pretty funny, he ended up remanding his own Twin twice before I killed him.
Match 4: Twin 0-2
Game 1: Oh the misplays! I have a Dismember and Vapor Snag in hand and figure I'll let a Pestermite/ Exarch resolve and then just kill it. In response to Exarch tapping an island I float the mana. Priority, I go to Dismember it, he Dispels it. Go to cast snag as backup, realize I used the floated blue to pay for Dismember and now I only have colorless. Whoops.
Game 2: The Tilt! So I'm still not sure what the proper play would have been for this one, but opponent lands a T3 Tectonic Edge. I'm sitting on Cavern, Mutavault, Island with a Vial on 2. While I have another island in hand, I'd rather not immediately give him the Cavern so I can keep my lords from being countered, especially when I still have Vial as pseudo mana. End up playing around it for too long as he combos off on turn 5.
Match 5: Maybe Twin? 2-0
Game 1: A combination of Cursecatchers, Tidebinder Mages, and Spreading Seas keep this one as an easy win. The guy I was playing against dropped a Lavamancer that immediately got Tidebindered, and Seas kept him off every color but blue after that.
Game 2: I don’t remember much from this, only that my opponent got flooded to the extreme. Of the 23 lands he said he was running, at the end of things he had 15, 5 in hand, 10 on the field. I was scared of running into counterspells so I kept my hand back for a relatively long period of time and built out solely through Vial. I still think it was the right play, especially against something basically unknown.
Got into Top 8, decided to split the pot but play for the byes.
Top 8 Round 1: Scapeshift
Game 1: I've never played against Scapeshift before. No one I know has the deck, and while I understand the core combo, I'm not too sure the best course of action Fish has against it. Combo'd off and kicked my teeth in.
Game 2: I'm feeling much better Game 2 as I took out most of the creature interaction and brought in the counterspells. Unfortunately for me he ramped into a Summoner's Pact for Inferno Titan when I was tapped out. Turns out Titan on turn 4 is a pain in my ass, not to mention Swan Song doesn't really interact with actual creatures. Died to the titan beats.
As far as the deck goes I would probably change a few things:
More Counterspells: Remand or Spell Snare. Something that deals with creatures. Probably take the place of Merrow Rejeerey in the board.
Cut the Echoing Truth for the 4th Vapor Snag.
Consider running Sieges Mainboard: There was only 1 game I didn't want to see it, and that was Scapeshift Game 2. Of course, it can kind of be a do-nothing enchantment the turn it drops, so additional testing is required.
Consider Spellskite: I ended up cutting Spellskite for Monastery Siege, which also took the place of Thassa, after playing with it for a while I'm still not sure which one I like best.
Consider Ninja of the Deep Hours: This card has been doing work for me with Greg Hatch's Legacy Merfolk list, and he does a lot of work when paired with Siege.
Two cards I was randomly thinking about running, depending on what I expect to see, are Reflecting Pool and Flash Freeze.
Reflecting Pool if I see Amulet Bloom pop up at all, as when you control a Cavern of Souls it can make any color and let you pay for pacts. If I ran it I would probably up the number of Caverns in the deck to 4.
Flash Freeze is strictly worse than Remand BUT doesn't give your opponent their card back. When paired with the loot effect of Siege this might not be too bad of a thing. Then again running Unified will might just be a better choice. The bigger issue is running 2 mana counterspells I think.
As far as the deck goes I would probably change a few things:
More Counterspells: Remand or Spell Snare. Something that deals with creatures. Probably take the place of Merrow Rejeerey in the board.
...
Reflecting Pool if I see Amulet Bloom pop up at all, as when you control a Cavern of Souls it can make any color and let you pay for pacts. If I ran it I would probably up the number of Caverns in the deck to 4.
Wanting to run more counterspells, and wanting to run four Caverns, tend to be conflicting goals. With 8 mana sources that are colorless for non-merfolk spells (including the 4 Mutavaults), the mana's a time bomb.
Planned on boarding in the Reflecting Pools for the Mutavaults, so the mana base stays roughly the same. It's a matchup where I'm unlikely to secure a win before the combo goes off so I either need a counter, or I need to be able to pay for the pacts. I haven't tested yet so I'm not sure the strain it's going to put on the deck, and if Bloom never shows up in large numbers I might never need to worry about it.
I liked the idea of a bant version. Do you think Ajani Goldmane would be good in this version? (a little lifegain and permanent counters for our fishs) I´m playing monoblue right now, and i´m using 2x Mana Leak, 2x Spell Pierce and 3X Dismember as instants, do you think it´s good? And finally, what about Darkslick Shores to soften the damage taken by dismbembers (and help against Choke too)?
Hey Guys, long time lurker of the forum! I pilot a list of fish that uses mana leaks instead of spell pierces, and has them mainboard. I've done decently in a bunch of dailies, though I have yet to try it out in a tournament setting. Just wondering what other peoples experiences are bouncing between the different counter spells available?
Went 3-0 at my LGS using the same list I used back in the IQ. Beat Living End, Burn, and Dredgevine. If people want a report I can give a more details one, but suffice to say Master of Waves and Spreading Seas saved the day.
Thassa was a beast all night. Between thassa and siege, you really feel like you never have a dead draw (lands and vials no more). Note that I didn't run Cursecatcher. I don't like this card. It's good when it's good and ****ing awful when it's not. The reason I'm running only one Kira is because I was predicting a lot of abrupt decays and Pestermite flash blocks. The spellskites also have more mainboard game vs twin and burn, which are always at my LGS. I saw SaintA trying syyg, River Guide in his lists and I think I'll be keeping it in my list. Plays a similar role as Kira (but much more mana intensive) except it's a merfolk and can stop decay as well as swing into twin decks freely (free island walk!). I don't think this deck needs more "lords" or merfolk creaures. Two lords and a mutavault is usually sufficient to end the game as long as you can protect them with kira, sygg, and spellskite. Also, I'll never play vapor snag again after playing 4 dismembers. Killed so many goyfs
It's a good card to swap out vials for in matchups like jund/junk where vials don't do much and destroying their greedy mana and manlands is advantageous. Also on the play vs a lot of decks, the card disasvantage of vials warrants them coming out.
I like the lack of PtE in your UW list - never thought it worked very well personally with all the non-bos - seas, pierce, cursecatcher. However, is it really worth running white for just 2x Kataki? Surely running RiP over relic and some stony silence need slots and maybe 1-2x PtE to bolster the removal package against creature heavy decks..?
I was originally planning to run much more white hate when I decided to put the deck together, which is why it may look funny with only 3 white cards (2x Kataki, War's Wage and Sygg, River Guide). I also plan to test Ojutai's Command when it comes out.
Playing Path to Exile never made much sense to me, especially in a pain-free (manabase that is) deck that can afford to run Dismember. I agree that giving your opponent free lands goes totally against the cards you mentioned (Spell Pierce, Monastery Siege, Spreading Seas, Cursecatcher, etc). This may sound weird, but I'd probably run Reality Shift before I ever ran Path to Exile. A 2/2 creature (most likely can't manifest it) that can't block my islandwalking creatures is a better trade-off than giving my opponent free lands.
On the topic of Stony Silence vs Kataki, War's Wage: Merfolk is a tempo aggro deck, so whenever we can play a hate card that also doubles as a creature we should do so. Also, a turn 2 Kataki, War's Wage is basically GG for affinity unless they have Galvanic Blast. In almost any other deck (except Hatebears) I would run Stony Silence, just for it's dual applications against tron.
A similar tempo argument can be made for Rest in Peace and Relic of Progenitus. Being able to cantrip off of Relic of Progenitus, means that we draw into our threats faster. I also think [/card]Relic of Progenitus[/card] is one of the best sideboard cards ever printed (even mainboard in some decks). I run it in almost every deck i've ever built.
I prefer Stony over Kataki - coz you hit more than 1 deck (as you state). I think Stony is enough for us against Affinity coz we have such a quick clock but point taken on the body side of things.
Although the cantrip is good - RiP is such a hard gy kill card which gy decks just cannot play around - relic can be played around somewhat easily..
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
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I just feel bant lets us still play enough of merfolk good stuff without having to resort to other creatures if in some magic christmas land mono-blue was no longer viable somehow. I can admit esper would be pretty sweet as we get all those great discard spells. I do like stubborn denial, even with 2 lords out and something like a silvergill that card is online...or 2 lords and a muta
UMerfolkU
Legacy
UMerfolkU
Commander
RWBAlesha, Who Smiles At DeathRWB
Round 1 vs UWR Delver
This deck was brewed by a friend of mine. Typical cars from the old UR Delver list are present, like Lightning Bolts, Delver of Secrets, Young Pyromancer, Grim Lavamancer, etc. The oddball cards in the deck, which were more effective in practice than they would seem, were the maindeck Angel's Grace and Pact of the Titan. The idea of the deck is to cast a few Pact of the Titan and then playing Angel's Grace on the next upkeep to keep from dying. Angel's Grace also gives the added benefit of surviving a turn from an opponent who overextends with a lot of creatures
Game 1: Opponent casts Turn 1 Delver, into 2 Delvers on turn 2 and another one on turn 3. They all flipped. I couldn't keep up with him at this point.
Sideboard: +4 Spell Pierce, +3 Chalice of the Void, -2 Thassa, God of the Sea, -4 TIdebinder Mage, -1 Silvergill Adept
Game 2: I play a Chalice on 1 on turn 2 while my opponent taps out for a turn 1 Delver. He has no answer.
Game 3: This was the most interesting game of the 3. I was able to flood the board with a bunch of creatures. The back breaking cards for him were the 2 Spell Pierces in hand and 2 Cursecatchers on the board. His only out in the deck was a single Blasphemous Act, which ended up being at the bottom of his deck.
Round 2 vs UR Twin
This is a matchup that I haven't had a chance to test against. I felt like no matter what happened, as long as my opponent was not able to resolve his combo, I would have no trouble outracing him.
Game 1: I proceeded to Spreading Seas as many of his Red mana sources as possible. To be safe, I also Dismember'd any Deceiver Exarch or Pestermites, just in case.
Sideboard: +4 Spell Pierce, +2 Torpor Orb, -4 Tidebinder Mage, -2 Master of Waves
Game 2: a Turn 1 Vial into Cursecatcher prevented my opponent from casting an Anger of the Gods when he really wanted. He also stumbled on his mana, ending the game with only 1 Mountain, 1 Sulfur Falls, and 1 Tectonic Edge on the field. On turn 4, I attempted to bait a counterspell by casting Spreading Seas on his Sulfur Falls, which he used his only Blue Mana to Spell Snare it, and I slammed a Torpor Orb on the board.
Round 3 vs Abzan
This is the matchup that I have been looking forward to playing against since I built the deck. This is such a good matchup for my build. Maindeck Tidebinder Mages, Thassas, and Spreading Seas are what won this match for me.
Game 1: Tidebinder Mage on his Tarmogoyfs and Seige Rhino really did a number on him. This, coupled with the single Spreading Seas I resolved on his Godless Shrine was too backbreaking for him.
Sideboard: +4 Tectonic Edge, +3 Spell Pierce, -4 Master of Waves, -2 Mutavault, -1 Cavern of Souls
Game 2: I had a slow start, and was overwhelmed by the 2 Tarmogoyfs that he had in play. I couldn't recover from this, along with all of his hand disruption and removal spells.
Game 3: This is the game that Thassa really showed her true powers. The game went as every Abzan player wants it to. 1 for 1 trades until we are in top deck mode. Except, I had an active Thassa and double Aether Vials on the board. 2 Islands on the field was all I ever needed. Thassa allowed me to filter all of the lands that were on top to the bottom of the deck to draw the gas cards I needed to pull ahead of him. Eventually, I had enough Merfolk on the board to just sit back with them, while Thassa bashed in for 5 unblockable damage every turn.
So why do I think Thassa does so much work? Because she is a card that MUST be answered by most decks, or else she just allows us to get completely out of hand. With as few draw spells as we run in the deck, being able to dig a little deeper every turn and filter our draws is extremely important in increasing the efficiency of the deck. With as many UU permanents that we have in the deck, she eventually becomes a HUGE threat and a fast, unblockable threat. If she eats a Path to Exile, then great, that is another one of our lords that gets to live to keep our Merfolk as huge as possible. If she doesnt, then great, we have an indestructable 5/5 that can't be blocked and that filters our draws.
Anyone who says she is terrible in this deck REALLY needs to test with her more. I have never been sad to draw her in any game I've played thusfar, except, maybe against Infect.
Legacy: Infect, Lands, Eldrazi, Storm
Modern: Infect, UW Eldrazi
The list
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Spreading Seas
4 Aether Vial
4 Tidebinder Mage
3 Master of Waves
3 Vapor Snag
2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
2 Dismember
1 Echoing Truth
1 Relic of Progenitus
12 Island
4 Mutavuault
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Minamo School at Water’s Edge
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
3 Gutshot
1 Relic of Progenitus
4 Tectonic Edge
2 Merrow Reejerey
3 Swan Song
2 Monastery Siege
I anticipated seeing mostly Twin, Junk, 'Murica, and Burn. Our local Affinity player was out of town for the weekend so unless he loaned his deck to anyone I figured Affinity was off the table. All the better for me.
Match 1: Storm 2-0
Game 1: I thought this was twin for 90% of Game 1, he really didn't do much besides Serum Visions and Probe and I kind of ran him over with T1 Vial, T2 Vial in a Cursecatcher and cast another Cursecatcher leaving mana to bluff Spellpierce, T3 Vial in a Lord of Atlantis after casting Kira with a Cavern on Illusion. As a last ditch effort he tries to go off at 1 life and wiffs.
Game 2: I completely forgot to board out Spreading Seas but it worked out because Game 2 I kept him off red for 5+ turns.
Match 2: Jeskai Tokens 1-1-1
Game 1: Mull to 6 off a 5 lander. I was convinced this was a RW burn deck for all of game 1. He gets in for 19 (!!!) points of damage over 3-4 turns with 2 Monastery Swiftspears and a fist full of burn spells, and I deal around 20 damage which still isn’t enough because of 3 lightning helixes. I stabilize at 1 life and win with a Master of Waves.
Game 2: It is now that I realize my opponent is playing Jeskai Tokens as a Turn 2 Young Pyromancer hits the board. Turn 3 Monastery Mentor followed by a bunch of tokens gums up the board for me. With about 8 minutes left in the round it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to clear his board fast enough for the win or to stall long enough for the win either, so I concede and we quickly shuffle up for game 3.
Game 3: Opening hand of 2 land, 3 lords, an Aether Vial, and a Vapor Snag. Snap Keep.
Bashing back and forth, enter extra turns. Oh boy. I manage to get him down to 2 and neither one of us could close it out. Looks like it’s a draw.
Match 3: Twin 2-1
Unfortunately my notes for this are terrible so I have very little recollection of what happened.
Game 1: Tidebinder Mage repeatedly punches him through the face for the win.
Game 2: Mull to 5, pray for good topdecks. Swan Songs a plenty but not enough colored land to win the war.
Game 3: Built up a board, repeatedly Vapor Snagged his exarch in response to twin casting. Was pretty funny, he ended up remanding his own Twin twice before I killed him.
Match 4: Twin 0-2
Game 1: Oh the misplays! I have a Dismember and Vapor Snag in hand and figure I'll let a Pestermite/ Exarch resolve and then just kill it. In response to Exarch tapping an island I float the mana. Priority, I go to Dismember it, he Dispels it. Go to cast snag as backup, realize I used the floated blue to pay for Dismember and now I only have colorless. Whoops.
Game 2: The Tilt! So I'm still not sure what the proper play would have been for this one, but opponent lands a T3 Tectonic Edge. I'm sitting on Cavern, Mutavault, Island with a Vial on 2. While I have another island in hand, I'd rather not immediately give him the Cavern so I can keep my lords from being countered, especially when I still have Vial as pseudo mana. End up playing around it for too long as he combos off on turn 5.
Match 5: Maybe Twin? 2-0
Game 1: A combination of Cursecatchers, Tidebinder Mages, and Spreading Seas keep this one as an easy win. The guy I was playing against dropped a Lavamancer that immediately got Tidebindered, and Seas kept him off every color but blue after that.
Game 2: I don’t remember much from this, only that my opponent got flooded to the extreme. Of the 23 lands he said he was running, at the end of things he had 15, 5 in hand, 10 on the field. I was scared of running into counterspells so I kept my hand back for a relatively long period of time and built out solely through Vial. I still think it was the right play, especially against something basically unknown.
Got into Top 8, decided to split the pot but play for the byes.
Top 8 Round 1: Scapeshift
Game 1: I've never played against Scapeshift before. No one I know has the deck, and while I understand the core combo, I'm not too sure the best course of action Fish has against it. Combo'd off and kicked my teeth in.
Game 2: I'm feeling much better Game 2 as I took out most of the creature interaction and brought in the counterspells. Unfortunately for me he ramped into a Summoner's Pact for Inferno Titan when I was tapped out. Turns out Titan on turn 4 is a pain in my ass, not to mention Swan Song doesn't really interact with actual creatures. Died to the titan beats.
As far as the deck goes I would probably change a few things:
More Counterspells: Remand or Spell Snare. Something that deals with creatures. Probably take the place of Merrow Rejeerey in the board.
Cut the Echoing Truth for the 4th Vapor Snag.
Consider running Sieges Mainboard: There was only 1 game I didn't want to see it, and that was Scapeshift Game 2. Of course, it can kind of be a do-nothing enchantment the turn it drops, so additional testing is required.
Consider Spellskite: I ended up cutting Spellskite for Monastery Siege, which also took the place of Thassa, after playing with it for a while I'm still not sure which one I like best.
Consider Ninja of the Deep Hours: This card has been doing work for me with Greg Hatch's Legacy Merfolk list, and he does a lot of work when paired with Siege.
Two cards I was randomly thinking about running, depending on what I expect to see, are Reflecting Pool and Flash Freeze.
Reflecting Pool if I see Amulet Bloom pop up at all, as when you control a Cavern of Souls it can make any color and let you pay for pacts. If I ran it I would probably up the number of Caverns in the deck to 4.
Flash Freeze is strictly worse than Remand BUT doesn't give your opponent their card back. When paired with the loot effect of Siege this might not be too bad of a thing. Then again running Unified will might just be a better choice. The bigger issue is running 2 mana counterspells I think.
Wanting to run more counterspells, and wanting to run four Caverns, tend to be conflicting goals. With 8 mana sources that are colorless for non-merfolk spells (including the 4 Mutavaults), the mana's a time bomb.
Has anyone given this a serious test yet?
Lingering tokens and inkmoths are a pain in the butt....
I played mono blue devo in standard and there's nothing more fustrating than a 0/1 off the top midgame.
I will admit that there is some allure to the card's independence from the tribal theme, I just can't get over how blah it is after t1/2.
If you have one available, yup. Not always the case though unfortunately.
I've been thinking about this. Between Mothdust and Mutavault there might be enough "dragons" to run Silumgar's Scorn.
Ps: sorry for my english, i´m still learning.
I have swan song in my sideboard, I find it pretty useful against twin and other matchups where I want to play a little more defensively with my fish.
UMerfolkU
Legacy
UMerfolkU
Commander
RWBAlesha, Who Smiles At DeathRWB
2-0 RUG Twin
2-0 Jund
2-0 UB Faeries
2-0 Bant Geist
My list is a little different than what others seem to be running
Sideboard
Thassa was a beast all night. Between thassa and siege, you really feel like you never have a dead draw (lands and vials no more). Note that I didn't run Cursecatcher. I don't like this card. It's good when it's good and ****ing awful when it's not. The reason I'm running only one Kira is because I was predicting a lot of abrupt decays and Pestermite flash blocks. The spellskites also have more mainboard game vs twin and burn, which are always at my LGS. I saw SaintA trying syyg, River Guide in his lists and I think I'll be keeping it in my list. Plays a similar role as Kira (but much more mana intensive) except it's a merfolk and can stop decay as well as swing into twin decks freely (free island walk!). I don't think this deck needs more "lords" or merfolk creaures. Two lords and a mutavault is usually sufficient to end the game as long as you can protect them with kira, sygg, and spellskite. Also, I'll never play vapor snag again after playing 4 dismembers. Killed so many goyfs
Landcronomicon
UMerfolkU
Legacy
UMerfolkU
Commander
RWBAlesha, Who Smiles At DeathRWB
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Playing Path to Exile never made much sense to me, especially in a pain-free (manabase that is) deck that can afford to run Dismember. I agree that giving your opponent free lands goes totally against the cards you mentioned (Spell Pierce, Monastery Siege, Spreading Seas, Cursecatcher, etc). This may sound weird, but I'd probably run Reality Shift before I ever ran Path to Exile. A 2/2 creature (most likely can't manifest it) that can't block my islandwalking creatures is a better trade-off than giving my opponent free lands.
On the topic of Stony Silence vs Kataki, War's Wage: Merfolk is a tempo aggro deck, so whenever we can play a hate card that also doubles as a creature we should do so. Also, a turn 2 Kataki, War's Wage is basically GG for affinity unless they have Galvanic Blast. In almost any other deck (except Hatebears) I would run Stony Silence, just for it's dual applications against tron.
A similar tempo argument can be made for Rest in Peace and Relic of Progenitus. Being able to cantrip off of Relic of Progenitus, means that we draw into our threats faster. I also think [/card]Relic of Progenitus[/card] is one of the best sideboard cards ever printed (even mainboard in some decks). I run it in almost every deck i've ever built.
Although the cantrip is good - RiP is such a hard gy kill card which gy decks just cannot play around - relic can be played around somewhat easily..
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver