...and the deck has evolved. Sorry, Pioneer and Branchwalker, you're benched. Tempest Caller and Curious Obsession, get in the game! Compass is out of both the SB and MD in favor of another Unsummon, Negate, and Spell Pierce, and Kumena gets another clone. Here it is, in all its new, improved glory:
Still 20 lands, which is more than enough with that mana curve.
Fan of the deck. Thinking about building something similar. The whole bit of your deck seems to hinge on unblockable creatures getting card draw and rinse/repeat while overwhelming with lords and tempo. With this unblockable shenanigan why do you not play river sneak? Was it once in the deck and you took it out or did it just not fit to have another 2 drop?
First off, thank you.
There just really isn't room for it. I like to create multiple avenues to victory in case one doesn't work out. A number of my decks look like aggro at first but you can generally expect there's some sneaky tempo action going on somewhere in there. I'm trying to make as broad an approach as possible to deal with a range of metas (as well as compensating for lousy card luck), while still having areas of focus. I wouldn't mind having some Sneaks in there, but there isn't much that I'd really care to shave. No way I'm cutting any of the few higher-cost cards for them, and everything has its job. Do I cut disruption? Card draw? Mana compensation in the form of the Songs? Or the slow roll of the swarm component? I might be barking up the wrong tree, but I'm wary of focusing too much on one particular strategy without a backup plan. Hopefully it'll mean more wins overall.
There's also an issue of giving up information to the opponent with the Sneak. Where otherwise I might hang on to my Mer until post-combat main to cast it, if I want the bonus, I have to drop it in pre-combat main. Trickster circumvents that with Flash, but all the other creatures are vulnerable to it. The worst case is the Silvergill Adept, where I'm giving the farm away as far as info is concerned for +1/+1 until end of turn. If we're talking about Tempest Caller and it's the right time, tapping everything down before an attack, that's one thing. But the cons outweigh the pros too often with the Sneak. Otherwise it's just a more expensive Herald.
Makes sense. This is the list I was playing around with before seeing your deck. It was far more aggro intensive.
This deck was more "all in" on the low curve go get em. The unblockable bit came from Open into wonder which was an alternative win condition. I don't know yet what I'm going to take out but I know I'm adding Curious Obsession. I hadn't given that card much thought before but it looked great when play-testing some hands from your list. Herald of Secret Streams was considered for a moment when making the deck originally (which was more of a +1/+1 merfolk deck rather than what is above) but was too slow and clunky. However maybe that was because I wanted to try and combo it with seafloor oracle. If I put more tempo in the deck and lower the number of creatures but have a higher percent of +1/+1 counters I wouldn't be opposed to running it like that. River Heralds' boon and Kopalia would be worth running if that was the case.
Either way the deck is constructed I feel like RB aggro out does me before I can get enough card advantage (since they have so many recurring creatures that just do so much more) and control manages to wipe me even when I try not to overextend. However the control matchup seems more favorable than the RB aggro matchup if I can land Deeproot Waters.
The last thought I'd like to express is maybe its because I'm not sold on Kumena. I get he has good value but I just don't like him. I prefer Kopala against any deck with removal. I already have plenty of draw, evasion and buffs without him. I might just be shortsighted however since most successful merfolk play him.
Yeah, I really wanted Herald of Secret Streams to work, but I came to the same conclusion. Tempest Caller solves the issue of blockers in a much more straightforward way, but its cost limits the number I'm willing to put in. As for Kumena, I think that anything but his first ability is basically useless unless you're playing with tokens; how often are you going to have five free creatures otherwise? Three is doable, but it can still be tough to find times to draw. He's the best attacker we have removal-wise, though. I just wish he weren't legendary. That's why you'll never see me put four into a deck. I don't see the circumstance where it's going to be absolutely necessary to have him in hand and risk having a second there, adding dead weight.
I like Kopala too, but the problem with him is that he's useless against mass removal. That's why I always have some form of counterspell in MD. (I also might switch some Negates in for Pierces, because they lose utility after early game against someone who knows what they're doing.) I like him in the SB where I can bring him in once I see that the opponent is running targeted removal. Otherwise he's dead weight in game 1. (Well, mostly...he's still a 2/2.) And, as usual, it's tough figure out where to shoehorn him in. I never can bring myself to put him into MD.
OK, Merfolk purists, I'm about to commit the ultimate heresy (actually, I already have; I'm just announcing it here). More unblockables means a faster kill, even if some are slower to get out than others. And there's really only one semi-expendable here: card draw. So... +3 River Sneak, -1 Kumena, -2 Silvergill. The current version looks like this:
OK, Merfolk purists, I'm about to commit the ultimate heresy (actually, I already have; I'm just announcing it here). More unblockables means a faster kill, even if some are slower to get out than others. And there's really only one semi-expendable here: card draw. So... +3 River Sneak, -1 Kumena, -2 Silvergill. The current version looks like this:
Before Return to Dominaria dropped I'd say River Sneak was bad, but because of the prolific number of anti-swarm cards now in the format that punish small creature strategies and aggressive strategies, he got better. Namely, he got better because of Merfolk Trickster pulling double duty against cards like Goblin Chainwhirler. He can ping all the creatures and kill a lot of merfolk in the early game, but if they stay on the field past the dropping of Chainwhirler life gets a lot harder for them.
Also, Captain America is back screaming with vengeance... friend made Champion of the Flame a thing in a UWR deck. That deck can make you sweat bullets since it just wins out of no where. The entire reason I ended up going with the cartouche was due to his deck and needing to sometimes chump block a 9/9 flying lifelink. Unsummon and Spell pierce help a ton, but he also gets to run Spell Pierce.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Also, Captain America is back screaming with vengeance... friend made Champion of the Flame a thing in a UWR deck. That deck can make you sweat bullets since it just wins out of no where. The entire reason I ended up going with the cartouche was due to his deck and needing to sometimes chump block a 9/9 flying lifelink. Unsummon and Spell pierce help a ton, but he also gets to run Spell Pierce.
I don't see how Cartouche is going to be any better against removal than Curious Obsession is. Flyers can still be stopped (and blocked).
Bah...red Bogles. We hates 'em forever. Against that, I'd go low to the ground and full disruption...siding in all the Unsummons, Negates, and Naturalizes, and dumping the Unclaimed Territories, the Kumenas and Tempest Callers (fewer critters means less utility for this guy, and he's damned expensive), a Deeproot Waters, a Song, and likely a couple of the Pierces because they're pretty much useless past the early game with the opponent's low mana curve.
ETA: Kopala could do work too, improving the value of the Pierces...hmm...
Also, Captain America is back screaming with vengeance... friend made Champion of the Flame a thing in a UWR deck. That deck can make you sweat bullets since it just wins out of no where. The entire reason I ended up going with the cartouche was due to his deck and needing to sometimes chump block a 9/9 flying lifelink. Unsummon and Spell pierce help a ton, but he also gets to run Spell Pierce.
I don't see how Cartouche is going to be any better against removal than Curious Obsession is. Flyers can still be stopped (and blocked).
Bah...red Bogles. We hates 'em forever. Against that, I'd go low to the ground and full disruption...siding in all the Unsummons, Negates, and Naturalizes, and dumping the Unclaimed Territories, the Kumenas and Tempest Callers (fewer critters means less utility for this guy, and he's damned expensive), a Deeproot Waters, a Song, and likely a couple of the Pierces because they're pretty much useless past the early game with the opponent's low mana curve.
ETA: Kopala could do work too, improving the value of the Pierces...hmm...
In my case the cartouche worked better because it replaces itself on cast. Obsession requires swinging in first, so I'd play it and then he'd throw magma spray my way, which then forces me to use a card to protect the creature I just threw the enchantment on or let him kill it. Either way I'm down two cards and he only expended one. That and the few times he didn't have the spray I at least had a way to fly over defenses and chump block his guy.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Played around with my list from before. Completely cut out open into wonder and have decided more to go with board state and a few unshockables. However since the draw was so important I did add the 4 of curious obsession which has worked wonders. I finally cut the 2 Jade Bearers and dropped to 20 lands with a 3rd song to make up the difference. Keeping my curve at 2 for creatures keep it alright. Merfolk Trickster is such a great card against RB aggro and Vehicles its insane. Few changes in the sideboard to add more counter spells for the UW control matchup.
Played around with my list from before. Completely cut out open into wonder and have decided more to go with board state and a few unshockables. However since the draw was so important I did add the 4 of curious obsession which has worked wonders. I finally cut the 2 Jade Bearers and dropped to 20 lands with a 3rd song to make up the difference. Keeping my curve at 2 for creatures keep it alright. Merfolk Trickster is such a great card against RB aggro and Vehicles its insane. Few changes in the sideboard to add more counter spells for the UW control matchup.
Played around with my list from before. Completely cut out open into wonder and have decided more to go with board state and a few unshockables. However since the draw was so important I did add the 4 of curious obsession which has worked wonders. I finally cut the 2 Jade Bearers and dropped to 20 lands with a 3rd song to make up the difference. Keeping my curve at 2 for creatures keep it alright. Merfolk Trickster is such a great card against RB aggro and Vehicles its insane. Few changes in the sideboard to add more counter spells for the UW control matchup.
I like it. One problem, though; it's missing any sort of after-the-fact noncreature removal (i.e. Naturalize).
I agree. I think Broken Bond would be best. I should remove one of the 3 counterspells in the sideboard and add them. I'm thinking spellpierce. Negate is just a stronger version of it for 1 more mana. I need syncopate for some troublesome creatures. I don't like not having ANY answer for them. But this allows slight ramp and kills saga's as well. Yeah I'll do that.
I agree. I think Broken Bond would be best. I should remove one of the 3 counterspells in the sideboard and add them. I'm thinking spellpierce. Negate is just a stronger version of it for 1 more mana. I need syncopate for some troublesome creatures. I don't like not having ANY answer for them. But this allows slight ramp and kills saga's as well. Yeah I'll do that.
I don't know how I missed that before...time for another change to my SB.
ETA: It's a minor thing, but given your distribution of green to blue, I'd probably go 6 Islands and 4 Forests. (Swift Warden needs 2 green, but how often is he actually going to get used?) And you have 16 cards in your SB.
I agree. I think Broken Bond would be best. I should remove one of the 3 counterspells in the sideboard and add them. I'm thinking spellpierce. Negate is just a stronger version of it for 1 more mana. I need syncopate for some troublesome creatures. I don't like not having ANY answer for them. But this allows slight ramp and kills saga's as well. Yeah I'll do that.
I don't know how I missed that before...time for another change to my SB.
ETA: It's a minor thing, but given your distribution of green to blue, I'd probably go 6 Islands and 4 Forests. (Swift Warden needs 2 green, but how often is he actually going to get used?) And you have 16 cards in your SB.
Yeah. I was thinking The same thing. I think I might just remove him. I think negate is just a better card to bring in and blossoming defense already does what he does just without the body. I guess I should probably remove it. And yeah I made some kind of typo when switching around my sideboard. The new one will look like this.
There's another reason that I'm less than enamored of River Sneak, which I've discovered during play. That +1/+1 bonus isn't useful on defense (i.e., the opponent's turn) unless you have merfolk with Flash, which means Tricksters or two others that are too expensive to be considered for the deck. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with them, because I need unblockables to make Curious Obsession work properly. (Yes, flyers could carry it too, but flyers can still be blocked.)
I don't know what the decks need. But right now I'm just unable to stand up against the better decks and I might put this on the back-burner for now. I've tried a few differnet lists and have preformed poorly the last three weeks. On one note I feel that turn three deeproot waters is too slow. I either keep it in hand and play the merfolk I have or I play it and fall behind. Until they ban walking ballista I don't think this will work. I have responses to the threat but nothing to take out the threat. Same with chainwhirler goblin. I think this deck will be good post rotation but right now its struggling.
I don't know what the decks need. But right now I'm just unable to stand up against the better decks and I might put this on the back-burner for now. I've tried a few differnet lists and have preformed poorly the last three weeks. On one note I feel that turn three deeproot waters is too slow. I either keep it in hand and play the merfolk I have or I play it and fall behind. Until they ban walking ballista I don't think this will work. I have responses to the threat but nothing to take out the threat. Same with chainwhirler goblin. I think this deck will be good post rotation but right now its struggling.
Yeah, for now I've pretty much abandoned Song and Deeproot Waters for a leaner, meaner aggro deck with more disruption in their place. It works pretty well assuming I don't get mana-screwed. I have it posted on TappedOut, and will post it here when I've gotten around to porting it to the deck builder. (Teaser: 18 lands and a 1.62 average CMC.)
Pierce doesn't seem to fit in very well for the slower deck either. I found few instances where I was actually able to use it. I'm thinking some combination of Negate and Essence Scatter, when and if I go back to it.
ETA: Mist-Cloacked (sic) Herald annoys me every time I see it. Is someone ever going to fix it?
I like it. Let me know how it runs. I"m gonna test out a few different things as well I've even thought about maybe trying to double up the lords by adding metallic mimic.
How can you run this in a world of Chainwhirlers? I think there might be a viable merfolk deck around, but when they can snipe your Herald and then drop Chainwhirler, so many creatures are going to hit the bin. Don't you think it would be better to run fewer X/1s?
I like it. Let me know how it runs. I"m gonna test out a few different things as well I've even thought about maybe trying to double up the lords by adding metallic mimic.
Yeah, Mimic will be great until it rotates out, though it's more vulnerable to disruption, especially in games 2 and 3. I tend to be wary of cards that will be gone in a few months (Botanical Sanctum notwithstanding...whatcha gonna do?) I'm also leery of having to repay for paper I already have on MTGO.
You might want to add a land, depending on what you replace. It's teetering on the edge of 19 lands if the CMC goes up.
How can you run this in a world of Chainwhirlers? I think there might be a viable merfolk deck around, but when they can snipe your Herald and then drop Chainwhirler, so many creatures are going to hit the bin. Don't you think it would be better to run fewer X/1s?
In my admittedly short time on MTGO, I've seen a couple of goblin decks and the one time I saw Chainwhirler actually hit the board was in a draft tourney. But the answers are Curious Obsession, Essence Scatter, Unsummon if absolutely necessary, +1/+1 counters, and lords. Blossoming Defense is a less permanent solution, and that and Unsummon represent loss of card advantage.
It isn't Goblin decks per se, but the Pro Tour just finished up with 7/8 top decks running Chainwhirlers. Most were R/B, and some were red aggro, none were goblin tribal.
I love Retort, but I'd be less than confident about running it with only 11 wizards in the deck. I am, however, becoming disaffected with Spell Pierce...even when I ran four, I can count the number of times it was a significant factor in a win on one hand. It's mostly useless beyond early game, particularly so against creature-heavy decks. (And all the Modern people throw up their arms. )
Seth didn't play that well, but it did better than I expected. The cool thing is having Naban, Dean of Iteration and Riversneak out. You cast a Trickster and tap 2 creatures +2 to Riversneak.
That Fileted deck, I would cut the Tempests for Kumenas. You already have 8 unblockables and Kumena would make it 10. Then you won't be stuck hunting for the 4th land.
Seth didn't play that well, but it did better than I expected. The cool thing is having Naban, Dean of Iteration and Riversneak out. You cast a Trickster and tap 2 creatures +2 to Riversneak.
I have a similar deck listed on TappedOut called Greek Fire, but I haven't played it. I've been working with Fileted. Adeliz, Naban, and Tetsuko are lending their talents. (It's U/R, though.)
That Fileted deck, I would cut the Tempests for Kumenas. You already have 8 unblockables and Kumena would make it 10. Then you won't be stuck hunting for the 4th land.
The Tempests are a finisher, and being only a 2-of anyway don't even come up very often...but usually by the time I get around to wanting to use them I've either already finished the opponent or it's ugly. Finding 4 lands by that point isn't really a problem, especially since I added the 19th land. (I revised it a little, subbing in Negates for the Pierces, adding a Broken Bond in SB to replace the lost Negate, and dropping one of the Silvergills for another Forest.)
Kumena just isn't much more than a 2/4 (possibly) unblockable without some way of getting out tokens, and I'm finding I'm usually not interested even in tapping one of those other merfolk. The Tempests are game-changers; the opponent usually doesn't see it coming when I do use them, at the point I'm ready to bum's rush with my entire board to take him down.
17-3-1 in matches on MTGO so far, though I can't always attest to the ability of my opponents. On the other hand, in many cases they couldn't have done anything no matter how good they were. I've seen Chainwhirler a couple of times, and in neither match did it kill a single creature. The short and long of it is I like it.
Makes sense. This is the list I was playing around with before seeing your deck. It was far more aggro intensive.
4 Kumena's speaker
4 Mist-cloaked herald
2 Jade Bearer
4 River Sneak
4 Deeproot Elite
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Silvergill Adept
2 Merfolk Branchwalker
3 Deeproot Waters
2 Song of Freyalise
Sorcery Instant
2 Open into Wonder
4 Blossoming Defense
Lands
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Hinterland Harbor
3 Unclaimed Territory
5 Forests
5 Islands
2 Swift Warden
3 Kopala, warden of waves
4 Merfolk Trickster
3 Silent Gravestone
3 Negate
This deck was more "all in" on the low curve go get em. The unblockable bit came from Open into wonder which was an alternative win condition. I don't know yet what I'm going to take out but I know I'm adding Curious Obsession. I hadn't given that card much thought before but it looked great when play-testing some hands from your list. Herald of Secret Streams was considered for a moment when making the deck originally (which was more of a +1/+1 merfolk deck rather than what is above) but was too slow and clunky. However maybe that was because I wanted to try and combo it with seafloor oracle. If I put more tempo in the deck and lower the number of creatures but have a higher percent of +1/+1 counters I wouldn't be opposed to running it like that. River Heralds' boon and Kopalia would be worth running if that was the case.
Either way the deck is constructed I feel like RB aggro out does me before I can get enough card advantage (since they have so many recurring creatures that just do so much more) and control manages to wipe me even when I try not to overextend. However the control matchup seems more favorable than the RB aggro matchup if I can land Deeproot Waters.
The last thought I'd like to express is maybe its because I'm not sold on Kumena. I get he has good value but I just don't like him. I prefer Kopala against any deck with removal. I already have plenty of draw, evasion and buffs without him. I might just be shortsighted however since most successful merfolk play him.
I like Kopala too, but the problem with him is that he's useless against mass removal. That's why I always have some form of counterspell in MD. (I also might switch some Negates in for Pierces, because they lose utility after early game against someone who knows what they're doing.) I like him in the SB where I can bring him in once I see that the opponent is running targeted removal. Otherwise he's dead weight in game 1. (Well, mostly...he's still a 2/2.) And, as usual, it's tough figure out where to shoehorn him in. I never can bring myself to put him into MD.
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)
4 River Sneak
4 Deeproot Elite
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Jungleborn Pioneer
4 Merfolk Trickster
Enchantment
2 Shapers' Sanctuary
4 Deeproot Waters
4 Song of Freyalise
2 Unclaimed Territory
4 Hinterland Harbor
6 Island
4 Forest
4 Breeding Pool
Instant
4 Negate
2 Blink of an Eye
4 Sentinel Totem
3 Naturalize
2 Blink of an Eye
2 Syncopate
4 Essence Capture
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)
Before Return to Dominaria dropped I'd say River Sneak was bad, but because of the prolific number of anti-swarm cards now in the format that punish small creature strategies and aggressive strategies, he got better. Namely, he got better because of Merfolk Trickster pulling double duty against cards like Goblin Chainwhirler. He can ping all the creatures and kill a lot of merfolk in the early game, but if they stay on the field past the dropping of Chainwhirler life gets a lot harder for them.
I tried Curious Obsession, but ended up trading it out for Cartouche of Knowledge because my opponents usually had a lot of removal like magma spray and Shivan Fire. Not so much Lightning Strike, though. I think there's too many creatures in the format that are x/4, so people are just opting for what ends Scrapheap Scrounger and what ends things like Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca.
Also, Captain America is back screaming with vengeance... friend made Champion of the Flame a thing in a UWR deck. That deck can make you sweat bullets since it just wins out of no where. The entire reason I ended up going with the cartouche was due to his deck and needing to sometimes chump block a 9/9 flying lifelink. Unsummon and Spell pierce help a ton, but he also gets to run Spell Pierce.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I don't see how Cartouche is going to be any better against removal than Curious Obsession is. Flyers can still be stopped (and blocked).
Bah...red Bogles. We hates 'em forever. Against that, I'd go low to the ground and full disruption...siding in all the Unsummons, Negates, and Naturalizes, and dumping the Unclaimed Territories, the Kumenas and Tempest Callers (fewer critters means less utility for this guy, and he's damned expensive), a Deeproot Waters, a Song, and likely a couple of the Pierces because they're pretty much useless past the early game with the opponent's low mana curve.
ETA: Kopala could do work too, improving the value of the Pierces...hmm...
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)
In my case the cartouche worked better because it replaces itself on cast. Obsession requires swinging in first, so I'd play it and then he'd throw magma spray my way, which then forces me to use a card to protect the creature I just threw the enchantment on or let him kill it. Either way I'm down two cards and he only expended one. That and the few times he didn't have the spray I at least had a way to fly over defenses and chump block his guy.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
4 Kumena's speaker
4 Mist-cloaked herald
4 River Sneak
4 Deeproot Elite
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
2 Silvergill Adept
4 merfolk trickster
Enchantments
3 Deeproot Waters
3 Song of Freyalise
4 Curious Obsession
4 Blossoming Defense
Lands
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Unclaimed Territory
5 Forests
5 Islands
2 Swift Warden
2 Kopala, warden of waves
3 Syncopate
3 Spellpierce
3 Silent Gravestone
3 Negate
I like it. One problem, though; it's missing any sort of after-the-fact noncreature removal (i.e. Naturalize).
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)
I agree. I think Broken Bond would be best. I should remove one of the 3 counterspells in the sideboard and add them. I'm thinking spellpierce. Negate is just a stronger version of it for 1 more mana. I need syncopate for some troublesome creatures. I don't like not having ANY answer for them. But this allows slight ramp and kills saga's as well. Yeah I'll do that.
New list
4 Kumena's speaker
4 Mist-cloaked herald
4 River Sneak
4 Deeproot Elite
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
2 Silvergill Adept
4 merfolk trickster
Enchantments
3 Deeproot Waters
3 Song of Freyalise
4 Curious Obsession
4 Blossoming Defense
Lands
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Unclaimed Territory
5 Forests
5 Islands
2 Swift Warden
2 Kopala, warden of waves
3 Syncopate
3 Broken bond
3 Silent Gravestone
3 Negate
I don't know how I missed that before...time for another change to my SB.
ETA: It's a minor thing, but given your distribution of green to blue, I'd probably go 6 Islands and 4 Forests. (Swift Warden needs 2 green, but how often is he actually going to get used?) And you have 16 cards in your SB.
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)
Yeah. I was thinking The same thing. I think I might just remove him. I think negate is just a better card to bring in and blossoming defense already does what he does just without the body. I guess I should probably remove it. And yeah I made some kind of typo when switching around my sideboard. The new one will look like this.
3 Syncopate
3 Negate
3 Silent Gravestone
4 Broken Bond
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)
Yeah, for now I've pretty much abandoned Song and Deeproot Waters for a leaner, meaner aggro deck with more disruption in their place. It works pretty well assuming I don't get mana-screwed. I have it posted on TappedOut, and will post it here when I've gotten around to porting it to the deck builder. (Teaser: 18 lands and a 1.62 average CMC.)
Pierce doesn't seem to fit in very well for the slower deck either. I found few instances where I was actually able to use it. I'm thinking some combination of Negate and Essence Scatter, when and if I go back to it.
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)
4 Kumena's Speaker
4 River Sneak
4 Deeproot Elite
3 Mist-Cloaked Herald
4 Silvergill Adept
2 Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Merfolk Trickster
3 Shapers' Sanctuary
Land
2 Unclaimed Territory
4 Hinterland Harbor
6 Island
4 Forest
4 Breeding Pool
Instant
4 Negate
4 Blink of an Eye
1 Metamorphic Alteration
4 Sentinel Totem
4 Naturalize
2 Syncopate
4 Essence Capture
ETA: Mist-Cloacked (sic) Herald annoys me every time I see it. Is someone ever going to fix it?
Kumena has gone the way of all mana-sucking clunk.
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)
I like it. Let me know how it runs. I"m gonna test out a few different things as well I've even thought about maybe trying to double up the lords by adding metallic mimic.
Yeah, Mimic will be great until it rotates out, though it's more vulnerable to disruption, especially in games 2 and 3. I tend to be wary of cards that will be gone in a few months (Botanical Sanctum notwithstanding...whatcha gonna do?) I'm also leery of having to repay for paper I already have on MTGO.
You might want to add a land, depending on what you replace. It's teetering on the edge of 19 lands if the CMC goes up.
In my admittedly short time on MTGO, I've seen a couple of goblin decks and the one time I saw Chainwhirler actually hit the board was in a draft tourney. But the answers are Curious Obsession, Essence Scatter, Unsummon if absolutely necessary, +1/+1 counters, and lords. Blossoming Defense is a less permanent solution, and that and Unsummon represent loss of card advantage.
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)
// 28 Creature
4 Kumena's Speaker
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
4 Merfolk Trickster
3 Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
3 Watertrap Weaver
2 Swift Warden
// 2 Enchantment
2 Deeproot Waters
2 Blossoming Defense
2 Wizard's Retort
2 Unsummon
// 20 Land
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Hashep Oasis
1 Unclaimed Territory
3 Forest
6 Island
4 Adventurous Impulse
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Shapers' Sanctuary
3 Naturalize
3 Negate
3 Crushing Canopy
3 Essence Scatter
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)
I really need to find a better class of opponent.
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)
Seth didn't play that well, but it did better than I expected. The cool thing is having Naban, Dean of Iteration and Riversneak out. You cast a Trickster and tap 2 creatures +2 to Riversneak.
That Fileted deck, I would cut the Tempests for Kumenas. You already have 8 unblockables and Kumena would make it 10. Then you won't be stuck hunting for the 4th land.
I have a similar deck listed on TappedOut called Greek Fire, but I haven't played it. I've been working with Fileted. Adeliz, Naban, and Tetsuko are lending their talents. (It's U/R, though.)
The Tempests are a finisher, and being only a 2-of anyway don't even come up very often...but usually by the time I get around to wanting to use them I've either already finished the opponent or it's ugly. Finding 4 lands by that point isn't really a problem, especially since I added the 19th land. (I revised it a little, subbing in Negates for the Pierces, adding a Broken Bond in SB to replace the lost Negate, and dropping one of the Silvergills for another Forest.)
Kumena just isn't much more than a 2/4 (possibly) unblockable without some way of getting out tokens, and I'm finding I'm usually not interested even in tapping one of those other merfolk. The Tempests are game-changers; the opponent usually doesn't see it coming when I do use them, at the point I'm ready to bum's rush with my entire board to take him down.
17-3-1 in matches on MTGO so far, though I can't always attest to the ability of my opponents. On the other hand, in many cases they couldn't have done anything no matter how good they were. I've seen Chainwhirler a couple of times, and in neither match did it kill a single creature. The short and long of it is I like it.
Standard: Fileted By Fish (UG aggro Merfolk), A Fine Kettle of Fish (UG swarm Merfolk), The Deep Blue Sea-People II (Umidrange Merfolk/Wizards),
Greek Fire (UR Wizards), Riptide (U Tempo)