MTG Salvation

Did you see a ton of benefit running both Thassa and Siege mainboard? Also, how was it with Dismember being pretty much the only interaction you had mainboard?

So this weekend I've got another GPT, this time in a more unknown meta, also DTK is going to be live. Given that information, here's what I'm thinking:





As for specific choices:


I forsee a lot of people running Rending Volley or Roast, so I've kept 4 Tidebinder's mainboard as well as the 2 Monastery Siege in the side. I've also considered the 4th Master mainboard, but having multiples in the opening hand can be brutal.


Given the current prevalence of creatures I dropped Spellpierce from the board, electing to keep Chalice of the Void and Swan Song as hard counters. I'm considering Spellsnare as well for this slot, but without knowing what I'm going to run into I'm not sure if it's worth it if I've already got other potential answers in Dismember, Snag, Swan Song, etc etc.


I'd like to find a way to maybe fit Shadow of Doubt in, it's a bit narrow, but has some versatility if there's a ton of greedy mana bases, Gather at Dawn/Collected company, or Bloom decks?


Encase in Ice is a great answer that the deck can use, but I'm not sure as it's even more narrow than Shadow of Doubt.


Without knowing what I'm facing I'm looking to make the sideboard as versatile as possible, any thoughts?

HOPEFULLY, more red decks are played. Hopefully, Atarka's Command is really good and pushes more red decks to the top and then Merfolk can eat the Red Decks. Monastery Siege is very very good vs Red (sadly not so good vs Command!). I would 100% run 2 main deck for sure or 2 in the SB minimum.

If you are expecting the meta to shift to Red then play Merfolk, otherwise I would park it for a bit as we got nothing new and everyone (+ their dog) got a new toy to at least test out.

I ALWAYS put one card from the new set into Merfolk 'just for fun', and it's 1, Silumgar Sorcerer. 2/1 Flyer for 3 that counters a creature. I think he's pretty bad but still better than Kira

Quote from JustAconspiracy »

Did you see a ton of benefit running both Thassa and Siege mainboard? Also, how was it with Dismember being pretty much the only interaction you had mainboard?

Having both Thassa and Siege MB was great. Being able to dig 2 to 3 cards deep every turn made sure I never god flooded on lands. Against Control, it was nice to find Mutavaults when needed to when I was trying to dodge their Sorcery speed removal. I never had a situation that I didn't want them in my testing against the 3 decks.

With all of that being said, I think that, obviously, matchups like Infect and Amulet, Siege and Thassa are bad. Just really bad.

4 Dismember was fine for my MB interaction. The only deck I tested against where I wish I had more was against Twin, but just Spreading Seas all of their red sources was enough for me to secure a victory in about 80% of the games we played that day. We're fast enough that we don't need to devote a ton of slots in the MD for removal spells, IMO.

I wonder if running a singleton Sunken Ruins could work... I can see it helping cast Lords off tight mana or softening Dismembers some percentage of the time. Thoughts?

Quote from bjeece »

I wonder if running a singleton Sunken Ruins could work... I can see it helping cast Lords off tight mana or softening Dismembers some percentage of the time. Thoughts?

While it may save us some life points off of dismember, we do have a lot of keepable hands that only contain 1 land. I fear that if this were the one land, it would be a sketchy keep. I never felt the need to not eat the 4 damage from Dismember, but I'm sure there are certain situations where the 4 life points could be the difference between a win and a loss.

Personally, I don't keep 1-landers unless there's a Vial, in which case the Vial is at least castable and any blue land drawn casts lords (as opposed to, say, a Mutavault-Vial keep)

I can see where it could potentially get us into trouble, but I think the advantage might outweight those scenarios. I'll be testing it for sure

Well to be honest i tend to be greedy with my keep.

Monday i had a hand of (it was on the draw against Junk post sideboarded game so no vial)

1 island 1 cursecatcher 3 master of pearl trident 1 lord of atlantis 1 phantasmal image

16 blue source left. 2 draw step to find them.(odds are like 45%)

The odds are not really in my favor but hey, the chance that i find a better hand even with 2 land were just worse I tough. + They play path to exile.

I felt like that hand would win trough discard spell and path better than any other hand I could imagine(barring spreading sea and silvergill adept)

Keep playing the UW version of the deck. Path to exile is fair superior wrt dismember from almost all the points of view.
I am also trying to put a couple of Worship in the main, has anyone ever tried it?

There is an SCG States and Modern 1k next week near me. I will test UW and let you know how it goes.

@Thriss: Try Sejiri Merfolk and Chalice of the void in the side.

@CobTyrannon actually we have mutavaults, that can be turned on at will and dodge common removals. I also run 2 skaab ruinators, that can be vialed in and can return from the gy. I truly need to test Worship but I don't know in which slot to put them in. Currently my (kinda successful) list is the following:




Infect has never been a problem. Affinity has been a pain in the ass until I put 4 katakis.

Side in Chalice of the Void and your counterspells - I run negate and/or Unified Will. I also side in TB mage's for burn.

I found myself siding out Siege in the majority of my matchups - I agree that it's great against burn - but while the Khans mode can be good - it's still too situational. I think this card will be played a bit longer and eventually the hjype will subside - it's just another Thassa to me - too cute and too win more.

Are people forgetting the non-bo's of Path to Exile with Spreading Sea's , Cursecatcher and Spell Pierce - furthermore the W splash is not free despite many people saying so - it clunks up your manabase - otherwise White is a worthy option depending on your local meta..

Lingering Soul's shouldnt be too bad - especially against a U deck - just keep swingin with unblockable dudes - maybe you need more protection for your dudes - Kira, Skite etc..

If tokens become an honest problem in your meta, Echoing Truth is a great sweeper. I've never lost a round against W/B tokens, but if I started seeing token in general pop up more Truth might make its way back into my side.

Depending on the meta, splashing white can be really bad since Blood Moon has gotten a lot more popular. Sure we always lose our mutas, but you losing your white mana sucks big time. You'd have to dedicate some slots to enchant removal of some sort or a way to get it off the table (like echoing truth)

Stony silence is useless if they have a cranial plating already online and equipped. Kataki screams: kill me or die, and it can also be ninjaed in at the end of our turn; fun will ensue.

With respect to the "Are people forgetting the non-bo's of Path to Exile with Spreading Sea's , Cursecatcher and Spell Pierce - furthermore the W splash is not free despite many people saying so - it clunks up your manabase - otherwise White is a worthy option depending on your local meta." that's completely not true, you just need to know how to play the deck. In Fish, path to exile is a lategame card, to be used when they drop a not-manageable threat or a combo creature. Cursecatcher is our insurance against Hivemind. Spellpierce our safety rope against early sweepers, infect, burn, scapeshift. The fact that they have no synergy does not mean that they could not be played together, and I have been playing fish for almost 2 years now. I won't go back to the MonoU version ever.

Though I agree to some extent that the synergy is lacking with pte and x spell, I think the major reason people stick with blue is that everything you're doing with a splash is already represented in blue.

in the end I always chalk this argument up to preference as long as when you switch you know what your cost-benefit in doing so.

For me, the white splash is mostly painless and free, other than the fact that we are losing to Blood Moon, which is more played than Choke against MonoU.
That is the reason why white splash version is not and never will be "strictly better", just another viable option of a tier2 deck.
Likewise, 4 PtE with Pierce, Catcher and Seas never worked for me. I have Snags and Dismembers main and 2 PtE in the side if need be (if I play W version).
Path isn't a strictly better removal that blue and black version, it has many downsides, including interaction with those mentioned cards.

@Fulca, don't copy Kataki with Image, it won't work the way you want it to

Kataki only works vs Affinity, and the only point for it vs Stony is that it is a creature (but Affinity has the best removal spells in modern, better Bolt, better Path and better Pyroclasm, not impossible to remove, while Stony demands green mana for Claim or black mana for Thoughtseize or blue for Snare/Pierce or whatever solution they pack in the sideboard, which isn't easy if Opal and Drum are locked in the first case).
Stony, other than destroying Affinity, works vs most versions of Tron which isn't a good matchup for us if played vs capable player.
Tron is removal-ramp-payoff deck and Stony stops first two parts, enabling our attack step.

Kataki is legendary so...

Has anyone ever tried out a black splash?

Black splash to ease the pain of Dismembers or going with the whole thought sieze hand disruption package? As sweet a card as Inkfathom Witch is I would need more than just hand disruption to get me to switch over to adding black. The lifeloss from dismember does hurt, but in the end it is still worth playing regardless.