I usually run 2, it is definitely an amazing card. However, it is also a very risky card that can quickly make you get 2-for-1'd if you play him with only one other creature on the field, and copying something from your opponent, while nice, doesn't really advance your gameplan unless it's some big beater like goyf. I'd definitely run 2, maybe 3, but 4 I think is too risky
I've had both amazing plays with Phantasmal (vialing him in to copy an opposing Vendilion Clique and removing Splinter Twin eot) and awful plays with him (having two Phantasmals and a Sivergill stuk in hand against UWr) and in my experience it's a card you want to see once every game but not twice
I can see the reasoning of the affinity-less sideboard plan, but I don't agree with it. Even though it is a terrible matchup for us, it's way too common of a deck to just ignore. With two Hurkyl's Recall solely for them, and Chalice and Pithing covering Affinity together with several other decks, Merfolk does stand a fighting chance. G2 and 3 can also only be better than G1, since very few Affinity decks run a sb with something that can hurt us.
I'd never run 0 counterspells, if only to be able to represent them. Dropping Mutavault for tec seems like a very bad idea, and four Phantasmals makes me shudder. 10 playsets of aggro seems great on paper but without disruption to back it up you could just as well run 22 swamp 38 Relentless Rats. The sideboard is also terrible, what deck asks for 4 Relics nowadays?
Stark's list looks better to me, although the Scalding Tarns are a bit silly
I dont really see the purpose of 8 sea effects either, especially since blue is a pretty common color nowadays. However I have always wondered why Spreading Seas has become the standard for Modern Merfolk when Sea's Claim exists AND Merfolk lacks a proper 1-drop. Is the cantrip really worth the tempo loss? I've tried Sea's Claim out a few times but the difference is so small I'd need a huge batch of games before being able to make a conclusion.
Also, I'm trying out Burrenton Forge-Tender on Cockatrice atm. I'll post some results later, this is the list I'm running:
Dropping Cursecatcher for more (1 mana) counterspells might be a good idea, although I'd never want to go below 24 creatures. Gotta deliver dem beatz
EDIT: something interesting I saw some time ago was a Merfolk player splashing white and running Burrenton Forge-Tender as the 1-drop. Protecting your lords from bolts and Anger could be pretty sweet
Thanks guys. My list is very similar to Aitken's actually, with the only difference that I run cursecatchers instead of MB tidebinders and thassa (I really dislike Thassa actually). Against what do you board in Chalice though, other than Affinity? I could see putting it on 2 counters versus Storm, but on t4 at its earliest seems kind of unreliable
Looking at it now I think Cursecatcher is still the best of the one-drops on average, although Dakra Mystic looks very interesting for the slower, more control-ish Merfolk deck with MoW as the bomb I've been wishing for.
In other news, I just made plans for participating in a GP, and even though it's still 5 months away I've been looking at my list a lot again. What would be good to run in a mostly unknown meta? I kind of expect to see a lot of Twin Exarch since it's powerful and fairly cheap to build, probably Storm as well for the same reasons.
Lately I've been seeing two different types of Hatebear decks, one being the "classic" hatebear deck and another "value" hatebear deck that tries to exploit Blade Splicer together with Restoration Angel and Flickerwisp. I've been trying out this decklist and I kind of prefer it to classic hatebear, mostly because I love Flickerwisp's utility. Having more Flying beaters is very useful as well.
So what do you guys think of Dakra Mystic? I think it's a really cool merfolk 1-drop with a very relevant ability, I just question whether that ability is relevant for the type of game we're looking to play. Also seems a little slow, if it didn't cost mana to activate it would be a lot more promising. Not sure I'd want to cut anything in my deck for them but I might give it a shot when JOU comes out to see if they're any good.
I'm pretty excited about Dakra Mystic, it feels like exactly the card Modern Merfolk needs right now: a good one-drop that creates card advantage
With Naya and Affinity out-aggroing us, Merfolk should go more midrange. We've got a ton of cards that create card advantage, and we've got a game-winning 4-drop that is currently incredibly awkward on the curve. So what I've been wanting to try out is run only 22 creatures, together with 21-22 lands and a playset of remand/vial/seas/Vapor Snag (or maybe PtE). Dakra Mystic would be perfect for that
Plus, don't forget that with targeted mill like this, not only can you draw if they draw dead but you can also deny them a powerful topdeck and increase the chance of a dead draw
Thanks, Ill try out Deprive. As for how to play without Fetches, the deck is obviously not as good without, but I just run a ton more duals (4 steam vents, 3 Hallowed Fountains, 4 colonnades, 2 sacred foundries, 2 glacial fortresses, 3 sulfur falls). Mana screw hardly ever occurs, but I do lose more life to shocks
I've been building UWr for a while now but Cryptic Command has just become way too expensive around here. What would be the best replacement for it? I can build around not having fetches but there isn't really any card that can replace Cryptic
I'm pretty excited about Dakra Mystic, it feels like exactly the card Modern Merfolk needs right now: a good one-drop that creates card advantage
With Naya and Affinity out-aggroing us, Merfolk should go more midrange. We've got a ton of cards that create card advantage, and we've got a game-winning 4-drop that is currently incredibly awkward on the curve. So what I've been wanting to try out is run only 22 creatures, together with 21-22 lands and a playset of remand/vial/seas/Vapor Snag (or maybe PtE). Dakra Mystic would be perfect for that
Plus, don't forget that with targeted mill like this, not only can you draw if they draw dead but you can also deny them a powerful topdeck and increase the chance of a dead draw
It's nice to see a Merfolk deck get so far in such a large tournament. My decklist is actually very similar to his list, although I don't mainboard Tidebinder or any counterspells. It's interesting he basically just gave up on the Affinity matchup, though.
As for Cursecatcher, I think it's an amazing card, it's basically a stackable mini-Thalia. You won't often sac it to counter, but that's because by then it's already done its job; your opponent had to wait a turn so he can have the mana over for his spell to come through. It's not as noticable of a gamestate change as a MoW bombing for 5-6 tokens, but try playing against Merfolk with an instsorc-heavy deck and you'll notice how powerful they actually are.
Modern Merfolk was the first non-kitchen table deck I built, and while I kind of see it as my "pet-deck", I have a genuine question:
Do you guys really think that Merfolk has what it takes to be a modern top tier deck?
The reason why I wonder is that a single merfolk is never good enough; you will always need multiple merfolk on the field before they become worthwhile, and apart from affinity no other modern deck needs that; goyf is fat on its own, kitchen finks is good on its own, Wild Nacatl is good on its own. A single lord however is just a bear. Because of this, creature removal basically becomes a one-and-a-half for one; it both kills one of our guys, and makes the others significantly worse. It's easy to say that merfolks can grow too large to be bolted, but that requires a whopping three lords on the field at the same time. Any clever opponent can easily play around this by bolting in response to a cast or a vial activation. Then of course you could argue that in return a clever merfolk player can play around that, but the fact remains that getting to that magical 4 toughness is prety difficult.
With the recent additions of MoW and Thassa there has been a huge spike in merfolk decks, but to be honest I think thi is just hype. MoW is a double edged sword; even with just one lord on the field he gives huge value, but it also forces merfolk to play more lands, giving for worse topdecks. Thassa on the other hand fixes topdecks, but is pretty much the personalisation of merfolks' issues in a card; five devotion to get her going is a lot in such a removal-heavy format, and without her being able to attack, scry 1 every turn and unblockability in a deck that already has plenty of that is pretty lousy on turn 3-4; if the deckplan works out you don't want to see much later than turn 6 anyways, giving you a lousy scry 3 for 3 mana.
Finally, I see Nacatl's unbanning as merfolk's nail in the coffin; why would you play merfolk over naya? Naya's creatures are above curve just like merfolks', but don't require you to have 3 or 4 on the field to still have value. Plus, it has tons of burn and better sideboard options. On top of that, if Naya becomes a thing, sideboard additions to counter it will hit Merfolk in the crossfire.
I love merfolk as a deck, I've played it a lot, but at the end of the day I think that a deck of which every card relies on other cards to be good can not function in a format with so much creature removal.
-Loxodon Smiter has had worked wonders for me, and I board him in in a lot of matchups. Any control and decks that run Lili have a lot of trouble with him, and I like him against Tron over Geist because he can't get pyroclasm'd. I'd really want to run 4, but I don't have space for it and on the (very very) rare occasion that my one green source gets destroyed I wouldn't want to have four completely dead cards.
-I used to run Hallowed Burial + Pyroclasm instead of Engineered Explosives, as together they give both the speed and the 100% removal I want in wipes. However with the addition of Nacatl and Bitterblossom I've tried switching to Explosives. I do miss tucking Finks and VoRs though.
-I've been thinking about cutting Cryptic entirely, as generally I don't like drawing it as much as in UWr control and it becomes awkward to cast against the control decks where I actually want my counterspells the most
-I'm also dubious abour Remand; generally I don't want to get to the gamestate where Leak goes dead anyways and even when it gets that far, Remand becomes much worse as well since they can just recast. In the early game, it basically counters a spell and lets both and your opponent "draw", but with the difference that your opponent always draws something he wants to play while you might draw a land
-I can't seem to find room for a fourth snapcaster. I don't like having too many of them earlygame and rather would just have a spell. Plus I like to board in RIP, which makes them useless.
-I'm not too big of a fan of Sowing Salt. I used to run 3 Molten Rains instead, but I don't know what else to cut from SB to make room for it. Salt is only good against Tron while Molten Rain also helps vs control and scapeshift, but I worry running only two Molten Rains wouldn't be enough vs Tron.
-I've seen the discussion here a lot, so I also wanted to say that I really love Spell Snare, if you ask me it might even be the best counterspell in Modern. You hit so many important cards against so many decks, and even in its worser matchups it's still not a dead draw.
I've had both amazing plays with Phantasmal (vialing him in to copy an opposing Vendilion Clique and removing Splinter Twin eot) and awful plays with him (having two Phantasmals and a Sivergill stuk in hand against UWr) and in my experience it's a card you want to see once every game but not twice
Stark's list looks better to me, although the Scalding Tarns are a bit silly
Also, I'm trying out Burrenton Forge-Tender on Cockatrice atm. I'll post some results later, this is the list I'm running:
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Phantasmal Image
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
3 Master of Waves
3 Merrow Reejerey
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
Spells
4 Path to Exile
2 Spell Pierce
4 Spreading Seas
4 AEther Vial
4 Mutavault
4 Island
4 Wanderwine Hub
4 Seachrome Coast
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Tidebinder Mage
1 Rest in Peace
2 Spellskite
1 Spell Pierce
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Swan Song
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Pithing Needle
EDIT: something interesting I saw some time ago was a Merfolk player splashing white and running Burrenton Forge-Tender as the 1-drop. Protecting your lords from bolts and Anger could be pretty sweet
In other news, I just made plans for participating in a GP, and even though it's still 5 months away I've been looking at my list a lot again. What would be good to run in a mostly unknown meta? I kind of expect to see a lot of Twin Exarch since it's powerful and fairly cheap to build, probably Storm as well for the same reasons.
3 Scavenging Ooze
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 AEther Vial
3 Aven Mindcensor
4 Flickerwisp
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Restoration Angel
4 Blade Splicer
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Horizon Canopy
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Temple Garden
2 Gavony Township
4 Razorverge Thicket
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Forest
2 Plains
2 Stony Silence
3 Rest in Peace
2 Creeping Corrosion
2 Loxodon Smiter
2 Spellskite
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Sunlance
As I said,
if only Dismiss was Modern legal..
With Naya and Affinity out-aggroing us, Merfolk should go more midrange. We've got a ton of cards that create card advantage, and we've got a game-winning 4-drop that is currently incredibly awkward on the curve. So what I've been wanting to try out is run only 22 creatures, together with 21-22 lands and a playset of remand/vial/seas/Vapor Snag (or maybe PtE). Dakra Mystic would be perfect for that
Plus, don't forget that with targeted mill like this, not only can you draw if they draw dead but you can also deny them a powerful topdeck and increase the chance of a dead draw
As for Cursecatcher, I think it's an amazing card, it's basically a stackable mini-Thalia. You won't often sac it to counter, but that's because by then it's already done its job; your opponent had to wait a turn so he can have the mana over for his spell to come through. It's not as noticable of a gamestate change as a MoW bombing for 5-6 tokens, but try playing against Merfolk with an instsorc-heavy deck and you'll notice how powerful they actually are.
Do you guys really think that Merfolk has what it takes to be a modern top tier deck?
The reason why I wonder is that a single merfolk is never good enough; you will always need multiple merfolk on the field before they become worthwhile, and apart from affinity no other modern deck needs that; goyf is fat on its own, kitchen finks is good on its own, Wild Nacatl is good on its own. A single lord however is just a bear. Because of this, creature removal basically becomes a one-and-a-half for one; it both kills one of our guys, and makes the others significantly worse. It's easy to say that merfolks can grow too large to be bolted, but that requires a whopping three lords on the field at the same time. Any clever opponent can easily play around this by bolting in response to a cast or a vial activation. Then of course you could argue that in return a clever merfolk player can play around that, but the fact remains that getting to that magical 4 toughness is prety difficult.
With the recent additions of MoW and Thassa there has been a huge spike in merfolk decks, but to be honest I think thi is just hype. MoW is a double edged sword; even with just one lord on the field he gives huge value, but it also forces merfolk to play more lands, giving for worse topdecks. Thassa on the other hand fixes topdecks, but is pretty much the personalisation of merfolks' issues in a card; five devotion to get her going is a lot in such a removal-heavy format, and without her being able to attack, scry 1 every turn and unblockability in a deck that already has plenty of that is pretty lousy on turn 3-4; if the deckplan works out you don't want to see much later than turn 6 anyways, giving you a lousy scry 3 for 3 mana.
Finally, I see Nacatl's unbanning as merfolk's nail in the coffin; why would you play merfolk over naya? Naya's creatures are above curve just like merfolks', but don't require you to have 3 or 4 on the field to still have value. Plus, it has tons of burn and better sideboard options. On top of that, if Naya becomes a thing, sideboard additions to counter it will hit Merfolk in the crossfire.
I love merfolk as a deck, I've played it a lot, but at the end of the day I think that a deck of which every card relies on other cards to be good can not function in a format with so much creature removal.
This is the deck I'm currently running:
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Restoration Angel
2 Cryptic Command
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
3 Electrolyze
3 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
2 Remand
3 Path to Exile
3 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Stomping Ground
2 Counterflux
2 Stony Silence
1 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Rest in Peace
3 Loxodon Smiter
1 Batterskull
2 Sowing Salt
2 Engineered Explosives
-Loxodon Smiter has had worked wonders for me, and I board him in in a lot of matchups. Any control and decks that run Lili have a lot of trouble with him, and I like him against Tron over Geist because he can't get pyroclasm'd. I'd really want to run 4, but I don't have space for it and on the (very very) rare occasion that my one green source gets destroyed I wouldn't want to have four completely dead cards.
-I used to run Hallowed Burial + Pyroclasm instead of Engineered Explosives, as together they give both the speed and the 100% removal I want in wipes. However with the addition of Nacatl and Bitterblossom I've tried switching to Explosives. I do miss tucking Finks and VoRs though.
-I've been thinking about cutting Cryptic entirely, as generally I don't like drawing it as much as in UWr control and it becomes awkward to cast against the control decks where I actually want my counterspells the most
-I'm also dubious abour Remand; generally I don't want to get to the gamestate where Leak goes dead anyways and even when it gets that far, Remand becomes much worse as well since they can just recast. In the early game, it basically counters a spell and lets both and your opponent "draw", but with the difference that your opponent always draws something he wants to play while you might draw a land
-I can't seem to find room for a fourth snapcaster. I don't like having too many of them earlygame and rather would just have a spell. Plus I like to board in RIP, which makes them useless.
-I'm not too big of a fan of Sowing Salt. I used to run 3 Molten Rains instead, but I don't know what else to cut from SB to make room for it. Salt is only good against Tron while Molten Rain also helps vs control and scapeshift, but I worry running only two Molten Rains wouldn't be enough vs Tron.
-I've seen the discussion here a lot, so I also wanted to say that I really love Spell Snare, if you ask me it might even be the best counterspell in Modern. You hit so many important cards against so many decks, and even in its worser matchups it's still not a dead draw.