River Sneak doesn't quite cut it but I like the direction this set is going and really hope Rivals brings some effective G cards. It's long been a goal of mine to have a highly competitive UG Modern Merfolk deck!
That being said, I busted a gut laughing at the comments here from a bunch of new players raging at Rothgar13's non-acceptance of their crappy lists haha C'mon kids, you're dealing with one of the Alpha-Sharks and you think you can change his mind with no results, or that he is wrong when you are admittedly new to the deck or at least not seasoned players? You won't find many players who will help you as hard as he will to become great at this deck. Don't piss in the pool just because you want the splash to work out and a veteran thinks you're spinning your wheels. *hint: you definitely are*
We have a long running ethos in this group that makes this literally the best forum community for any deck in modern.. Respect The School.
Part of that is proving your wild claims with relevant results, recognizing the real Fish players and listening to their knowledge, and not assuming you're right all the time, especially as a new player of the deck and format! Also please please please check your commander mindset at the door; you can make a thread in developing competitive for UG Merfolk, and should it become a real list we can talk more here about it and plenty of us, myself included, would LOVE for that to happen.. But until it does, this is the thread for *competitive* merfolk, not speculative lists backed with aggressive attitude and no results!
Much love to my fishes, may we all become sharks. Respect the school!
Warmachineprime, good to see you still on here! I fondly remember brewing and playing this deck during eldrazi winter and you were a large part of that! Cheers to a badass deck being built organically by the community.
I've been back on the deck recently and been loving it. GR Valakut is rather troubling and UW Control (land destruction heavy variants) are tough also. What have you, or anyone else, been doing in these matchups? I'm curious to see plans vs G/x Tron also. None of these feel unwinnable, i really just want information on maybeboard cards that arent in the stock list and sideboarding advice. There has been an influx of titanshift at my local shop lately and I can't let it go unchecked!
I like cursecatcher to keep them off of t3 Company, at least in g1, but can be cut for g2 & 3 to make room. MoW is usually cut like Nikachu said. Sea's Claim, Dismember/bounce spells, Dispel are all good cards vs them.
Also it was good seeing you at the GP, Nikachu. I left the GP right as you went into top 8, but my buddies and I watched the coverage while on the road. You did super well! I have recently shifted to 3 Sea's Claim with 2 Tectonic Edge in SB and it has been straight gas. I like it a lot more than 4-of either card, and it hasn't taxed my SB much as I'm on the no-Hurkyl's Recall plan, also. I encourage you to give a try in a league and see if you like it.
Also Rothgar13, your article was great. You guys are pillars of this community, much love.
Bring in Dispels against Tron. They have a fair amount of instants nowadays. I've caught bunches of Nature's Claims, Blessed Alliances, and Path to Exiles with it, and it's all but won me the game in those situations.
Hm, that is a very useful tool that I hadn't really thought of vs the new GW Tron builds. Against RG Tron I never found Dispel to be terribly useful but you are correct, it is much better now. Thanks!
Btw, Congratulations on the 5-0! That is great to see. Your list is still looking great.
For anybody else who has Sea's Claim questions, feel free to ask/pm me also. I am confident I have played the card in Modern Merfolk more than just about anyone at this point. I definitely agree with Rothgar13 in that it is a house vs G/B/x.
Some surprising aspects would be that 8-seas is very, very good vs Abzan Company & Kiki-Chord, but those decks have fallen off quite a bit so it's worth noting but not that important atm. Obviously the Eldrazi matchups have a very rough time with it also.
I bring the Sea's Claim in vs Control decks too. Grixis, Jeskai, and Esper all struggle immensely when they have no Manlands turned on, and their colors are disappearing turn-by-turn. The recent Esper Narset list that everybody is raving about? My friend quit playing it because I crushed him so hard every time we play.. Even with 3 Fatal Push, 4 Path to Exile, and 3 MD Sweepers(2 Supreme Verdict, 1 Wrath of God), it isn't enough to stop the Fish.
I must say, even when I lose, it never feels one-sided. I'm always in the game until the very end, and the most recent losses I have accrued would be once to Jund where I G1 mulled to 4 - lost just barely due to Bob triggers drawing 3 lands that game, G2 mulled to 5 - ouch, but got the win by dropping seas into lords + MoW, g3 mulled to 4 - lose eventually because I'm stuck on 2 lands the entire game despite slowing him down with 2 seas early. The other loss that night was to Tron where I raced him g1, g2 he blew up my only sea with Nature's Claim then landed O.Stone, then g3 he topdecked O.Stone after Path'ing my MoW while at just a few life, essentially locking in the win as I had no Mutavault and just a single Lord of Atlantis in hand. That night I beat an Affinity player 2-1, U Tron 2-0, Jund 2-0, and Esper 2-0 (in under 20 mins!). I'll keep bringing results with my new build, which you can find here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/sailing-the-8th-sea/
Much love to the Fish community!
Edit: FANAttIC, that is very interesting! Smuggler's Copter seems fun to test out. Is the new 'all lords' build one that drops master of waves altogether?
Musings on Legacy aside, I must confess that this Vendilion Clique experiment interests me. It's certainly a card that helps against some bad matchups (snatching a Titanshift opponent's payoff card sounds like a very powerful play, for instance).
In other tests, I've recently moved to the 8-Seas version of the deck on MTGO by replacing my sideboarded Tidebinder Mages for Sea's Claims, and I must confess it's exceeding my expectations. The MTGO competitive league metagame is packed with Burn, Jund, and Tron, and the Claim excels against all of those decks. So far I've been getting steadily positive results with it (no 5-0s, though I have come close with a 4-1).
Last note: I'll update the tier listings, since we (finally) got our December update last week.
I'm very glad that you're testing this out, Rothgar13!
I like the look of your list quite a bit.
I have noticed our dwindling meta-share and haven't understood why this card isn't being taken more seriously as it alleviates so much pressure on our deck. Coupled with Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, decks like Jeskai, Grixis, Jund, Junk, Burn,etc have no chance.. Honestly, the trickiest matchup for me lately, besides Affinity/Elves ofc, would strangely be Tron. A savvy Tron player, like the ones at my lgs, will respond to the Enchantments post-sb with Enchantment hate like Nature's Claim, or if I can't race fast enough they will wipe the board with Oblivion Stone on t5 and it's usually downhill from there unless I have a Mutavault online already. This has lead me to want to start packing some Chalice of the Void in the SB for matchups where I don't want the Sea's Claim, and so I can also switch gears when OTP vs OTD. Tectonic Edge is another option I would consider running to help vs Tron and GR Valakut. Definitely open to everyone's ideas/techniques!
For 2017 I'm going to begin logging my matches more vigorously to show more of you guys why to bother running Sea's Claim. This card is literally the nuts for us, and by playing it for as long as I have I am confident that I have seen many interactions that aren't always obvious, so I'll do my best to bring my findings here. I'm over here racking up prizes and points every time I play and just want the same for all of you guys.
I have had to back off of MTG a bit the past few months but I am back in now and committed to seeing our archetype continue to improve. We are still a fantastic deck, Fatal Push doesn't scare me one bit, and 2017 looks to be a phenomenal year for us.
4 Conduit seems like 1 too many right now. May bring in an Endbringer and -1 Conduit but the new Planar Bridgewill definitely warrant a spot soon in that slot. Torn between 1/1 split of SGW and Ghost Quarter and just going to 2 Ghost Quarter. I could go back to 4 Gemstone Caverns but when running 4 it pops up almost too often. 3 seems OK for now. I could go -1 Conduit, -1 SGW and go +1 Endbringer and +1 Ghost Quarter. That seems logical at the moment. I run the one Deceiver of Form because with 4 Conduits, there are many times when I only have the mana to tutor up Deceiver the next turn and not enough for the 2 titans. Deceiver also has a nice Scry 1 ability built in as well. And I have actually won a couple of games when it reveals a Reality Smasher and my Seer's, Endless Ones and the occasional SSG become 5/5 tramplers. That also could synergize better with HW Thopter Tokens. Turning 2 or 3 Thopters into 5/5 tramplers. Lastly I may be switching over to Hangarback Walker over Endless One. I hate losing the Eldrazi but HW gets you flying chump blockers. Something sorely missing. Sideboard is up in the air at the moment. I'll post up the current version as well soon.
Interesting! Thanks for the quick response. I'm getting back into this deck and traditional Tron right now, didn't love the look of Todd's list so I'm going with something similar to the Batterskull lists for now. I miss the Conduits a ton though, that thing is one of my favorite creatures in all of MTG, and I remembered you are also very keen on it so thank you for the list! This has given me quite a bit to think about.
Killing a Birds or Noble Hierarch with Gut Shot is almost always the worst line. Birds doesn't actually matter to them all that much, what does break them is when you use Gut Shot to kill a Viscera Seer, as they run 2-3 max, or when they attempt to combo and you use Gut Shot to interrupt the combo, for instance responding to a Bolster-trigger to kill a persisted Finks.
Also, making sure you have Islandwalk turned on with a Seas is crucial, as was noted. I would not remove Vapor Snag post-SB, though, but I would definitely remove the master of waves and cut Image - from your list altogether, even. It just isn't good enough.
Vapor Snag interrupts the combo, resets counters on something like a Birds if they bolster/Township it, and is all around great for combat tricks vs their plan B.
FWIW, my brother played Pod for a year, then switched to Abzan Company as company was printed and has played it since. I have literally hundreds of games in vs him, many of those in the top 8's and finals of PPTQ's, GPT's, etc. I don't know if there is a matchup I am more comfortable playing against with Fish simply due to the miles I've put in.
Cowology, I think a given card must be EXTREMELY beneficial to most matchups, or be EXTREMELY specific to a terrible matchup for us to run more than 2 of it in the SB. Examples would be Hurkyl's Recall if you expect Affinity, or a 3rd piece of GY hate if you expect multiple Dredge players. The only other cards I would really consider having more of would be a 3rd Dispel or Tidebinder Mage. Other than that, I can't think of any cards worth that many slots really.
Will either or both of you please take over this aging Primer? With a fresh thread, I agree many newer players would heavily benefit. This deck is far better than most realize, especially when we take into account the Japanese results you mentioned, mikeduges.
I've followed this deck since it's inception in Modern, and once Shaman of the Pack was spoiled I was hooked for life. I still remember the spoiler being fuzzy for a few days, and how no one believed that card would be a 3-drop.. I had a strong feeling (hope?) that it would be, and bought 3 of my Gilt-Leaf Palaces for $2/each on a Friday.. when I went back for the 4th on Monday after the spoiler cleared up and they were $18! Lol
I check in on here at least once per week, and really would like to have a fresh space to share results,ideas and builds. Despite my deep affection for tribal decks of all kinds (Merfolk is my specialty, followed by anything Eldrazi), I haven't played Elves much in the past year due to a hostile meta at my LGS and being very focused on Eldrazi and Merfolk, but recently some shifts have taken place that put it in a favorable position once again; namely a near complete lack of sweepers around nowadays.
Most recently, I played a straight GW build but I feel like G/B/w has a lot going for it, though I question the value of going with three colors. Is there any upside? Do those upsides overcome the weakeness of stretching the mana that far?
I'm going to try with the mutagenic growth, but with the IoK if you encounter with as a UW you can discard its Mana Leak.
Shouldn't the GB Infect comments be on another thread?
Not hating on anybody in particular, but it isn't quite the same deck and doesn't have the numbers to justify being discussed here in the Tier 1 forum. It also just kind-of detracts from meaningful conversation about UG builds. It feels very wrong to see the latest discussion of arguably the best thread for the arguably the best deck in Modern is about builds that don't run Blighted Agent and Mutagenic Growth..
FWIW about the Relic of Progenitus in the MB, both GP wins with Merfolk were lists with a single Relic and 0 Harbinger of the Tides in the MB. Take from that what you will, I do not recommend leaving home with 0 Harbinger, but I wouldn't be too squeamish about throwing a Relic in there - especially given the amount of Dredge running around.
FWIW, I had a clear win if I attacked with my two creatures on g2 of finals but miscounted my opponent's resources and chose not to swing thinking he could crew copter with Hissing Quagmire and block with Gearhulk while he was at 2 life, but he was a land short. I was heavily distracted, in my defense, due to my opponent literally ignoring the game to play with and hold his baby while his wife was standing around... I was pretty tilted that the judge was allowing this to happen while there was absolutely no need since his wife just showed up with the baby. I plan on reporting this occurrence to the DCI and SCG.
It's interesting to see how different your approach to the game is from my own. I would be quite happy if my opponent was distracting himself from the game. If he's taking too long in his turn you can simply ask "can I ask you to make a play?" but mostly I would take the time he's distracted to sharpen my own game plan. Sure, it's rude that he's not focussing on the game, but tilt is the #1 enemy of playing good magic. You want to be calm and collected, considering all your options and identifying the best line of play in every single instance.
You are absolutely correct in that tilt is bad and being calm is good. I am well aware of how to deal with tilt, and how damaging it is to gameplay; it is not something I really deal with- not even when I play my Modern Merfolk vs Affinity!
When I said "pretty tilted" I meant "slightly puzzled and put-off by blatant favortism", not "I got real mad-bad and flustered" as it typically means in this community. I can see how my description did not convey this, my bad! The judge was friends with this gentleman, so I should have expected some level of favoritism. I guess the expectation of clean oversight of the final round must have been out of line
I'll be cutting Gorger, he was sided too often and never felt too strong. I'll probably try Pia and/or Forerunner in the MB. I can see how the Haste on the Scroungers and Copters would help a lot.
Hey Nikachu, thanks for the list! Of course I love it if it has Sea's Claim! Leaving them in the sideboard is what I've found to be most effective, but I've never ran so many counterspells with it so I will have to test this out!
Dredge has been a fine matchup for me, my Sea's Claim approach has been doing tons of work. I do a whole lot of testing against them and find that, once again, Seas into MoW means we just win. I oftentimes just keep them off of Loam and/or Conflagrate mana for the win. I have Relic x2 in sb, but it is just a tool to help me get to the point of dropping Master of Waves. I remove 4 Cursecatcher and 2 Tidebinder for 2 Relic and 4 Sea's Claim currently. Cursecatcher is usually a do-nothing here compared to land-interference. I've been on Negate instead of Remand, but I'm not loving it atm so I'm going to swap those out. That could change my sb tactics a bit, but I won't know until I try.
For anyone having a rough time with this matchup, you should try Claiming their lands and see if you are still afraid of those pesky necromancers!
Sounds like you need to go heavy on the counterspells and land hate. Jam Dispel, Negate, Tectonic Edge, and Tidebinder Mage in your sideboard, and I think you'll be just fine.
Thanks. What's the best plan against Ad Nauseam? I dropped Chalice on 0 in game 2 but had no pressure. I assume pressure backed up by counters to counter Serum Visions/Sleight of Hand? They just build up a hand full of Pacts and such otherwise. And Boseiju is a beating.
You really want Chalice on 1 instead of 0 to stop them. Not being able to cantrip or even cast Angel's Grace usually means they scoop. I have made the same mistake (chalice on 0) and it sucks, but next time you will get them!
I always enjoy Sea-effects against them (full disclosure: I enjoy Seas vs basically every deck )to hit boseiju and to limit their White mana to their lotus' only, forcing them to waste them if attempting to cast Angel's Grace/Unlife. Overall it isn't a positive matchup, but it is close to 50/50. Echoing Truth is good, Pithing Needle can help also if you are comfortable/proficient enough. You can use Needle to name Lightning Storm to force them into the Laboratory Maniac plan, and then you just need to deal with Maniac.
Also, the whole Kira-trick is really the saving grace in the matchup. In short, if Kira is out, and they cast Lightning Storm, you can discard one of your lands to redirect Lightning Storm to Kira, triggering her ability. Even if they discard more lands to redirect back to you, the Kira trigger will resolve, countering the Spell. Turning off Boseiju is critical for both the Kira trick and the keeping your Chalice live, so plan to spread some seas on them.
Honestly, fuming over an article from such an inexperienced source with a relative lack of credentials should be beneath us, and I would encourage the Merfolk community to disregard it as an uninformed hate piece. Decks at 4/10 on the power level scale don't win GPs, as ours has (twice!). Also, his massive overestimation of Ad Nauseam's consistency should tip you off to a major source of bias.
Fair point, and I really appreciate your generous use of reason here! I wouldn't consider how I feel/felt as fuming, as I give no ground to the author and am not angry about it, I just wanted to throw my hat into the ring. Though I can definitely see how it would be easily taken that way - text can be troublesome when it comes to inflection, especially when one like myself prefers stronger language and word choice! Honestly, it was just so off the wall all we can do is laugh and hope others don't eat it up. Did Trump write that article?
Magicman657, I totally agree on the Transformers rating haha
As far as the Valakut matchup goes, it definitely is a close one. I agree that it almost always comes down to being able to deal with the titan for a turn, maybe two. If you cannot do that, it is highly unlikely you'll win the game, but all you need is a bit of tempo to sail through so Vapor Snag/Tidebinder/Remand are the all-stars.
That being said, I busted a gut laughing at the comments here from a bunch of new players raging at Rothgar13's non-acceptance of their crappy lists haha C'mon kids, you're dealing with one of the Alpha-Sharks and you think you can change his mind with no results, or that he is wrong when you are admittedly new to the deck or at least not seasoned players? You won't find many players who will help you as hard as he will to become great at this deck. Don't piss in the pool just because you want the splash to work out and a veteran thinks you're spinning your wheels. *hint: you definitely are*
We have a long running ethos in this group that makes this literally the best forum community for any deck in modern.. Respect The School.
Part of that is proving your wild claims with relevant results, recognizing the real Fish players and listening to their knowledge, and not assuming you're right all the time, especially as a new player of the deck and format! Also please please please check your commander mindset at the door; you can make a thread in developing competitive for UG Merfolk, and should it become a real list we can talk more here about it and plenty of us, myself included, would LOVE for that to happen.. But until it does, this is the thread for *competitive* merfolk, not speculative lists backed with aggressive attitude and no results!
Much love to my fishes, may we all become sharks. Respect the school!
I've been back on the deck recently and been loving it. GR Valakut is rather troubling and UW Control (land destruction heavy variants) are tough also. What have you, or anyone else, been doing in these matchups? I'm curious to see plans vs G/x Tron also. None of these feel unwinnable, i really just want information on maybeboard cards that arent in the stock list and sideboarding advice. There has been an influx of titanshift at my local shop lately and I can't let it go unchecked!
Much love to team tentacles!
Also it was good seeing you at the GP, Nikachu. I left the GP right as you went into top 8, but my buddies and I watched the coverage while on the road. You did super well! I have recently shifted to 3 Sea's Claim with 2 Tectonic Edge in SB and it has been straight gas. I like it a lot more than 4-of either card, and it hasn't taxed my SB much as I'm on the no-Hurkyl's Recall plan, also. I encourage you to give a try in a league and see if you like it.
Also Rothgar13, your article was great. You guys are pillars of this community, much love.
Hm, that is a very useful tool that I hadn't really thought of vs the new GW Tron builds. Against RG Tron I never found Dispel to be terribly useful but you are correct, it is much better now. Thanks!
Btw, Congratulations on the 5-0! That is great to see. Your list is still looking great.
For anybody else who has Sea's Claim questions, feel free to ask/pm me also. I am confident I have played the card in Modern Merfolk more than just about anyone at this point. I definitely agree with Rothgar13 in that it is a house vs G/B/x.
Some surprising aspects would be that 8-seas is very, very good vs Abzan Company & Kiki-Chord, but those decks have fallen off quite a bit so it's worth noting but not that important atm. Obviously the Eldrazi matchups have a very rough time with it also.
I bring the Sea's Claim in vs Control decks too. Grixis, Jeskai, and Esper all struggle immensely when they have no Manlands turned on, and their colors are disappearing turn-by-turn. The recent Esper Narset list that everybody is raving about? My friend quit playing it because I crushed him so hard every time we play.. Even with 3 Fatal Push, 4 Path to Exile, and 3 MD Sweepers(2 Supreme Verdict, 1 Wrath of God), it isn't enough to stop the Fish.
I must say, even when I lose, it never feels one-sided. I'm always in the game until the very end, and the most recent losses I have accrued would be once to Jund where I G1 mulled to 4 - lost just barely due to Bob triggers drawing 3 lands that game, G2 mulled to 5 - ouch, but got the win by dropping seas into lords + MoW, g3 mulled to 4 - lose eventually because I'm stuck on 2 lands the entire game despite slowing him down with 2 seas early. The other loss that night was to Tron where I raced him g1, g2 he blew up my only sea with Nature's Claim then landed O.Stone, then g3 he topdecked O.Stone after Path'ing my MoW while at just a few life, essentially locking in the win as I had no Mutavault and just a single Lord of Atlantis in hand. That night I beat an Affinity player 2-1, U Tron 2-0, Jund 2-0, and Esper 2-0 (in under 20 mins!). I'll keep bringing results with my new build, which you can find here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/sailing-the-8th-sea/
Much love to the Fish community!
Edit:
FANAttIC, that is very interesting! Smuggler's Copter seems fun to test out. Is the new 'all lords' build one that drops master of waves altogether?
Motto82, Great work at the Open!
I'm very glad that you're testing this out, Rothgar13!
I like the look of your list quite a bit.
I have noticed our dwindling meta-share and haven't understood why this card isn't being taken more seriously as it alleviates so much pressure on our deck. Coupled with Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, decks like Jeskai, Grixis, Jund, Junk, Burn,etc have no chance.. Honestly, the trickiest matchup for me lately, besides Affinity/Elves ofc, would strangely be Tron. A savvy Tron player, like the ones at my lgs, will respond to the Enchantments post-sb with Enchantment hate like Nature's Claim, or if I can't race fast enough they will wipe the board with Oblivion Stone on t5 and it's usually downhill from there unless I have a Mutavault online already. This has lead me to want to start packing some Chalice of the Void in the SB for matchups where I don't want the Sea's Claim, and so I can also switch gears when OTP vs OTD. Tectonic Edge is another option I would consider running to help vs Tron and GR Valakut. Definitely open to everyone's ideas/techniques!
For 2017 I'm going to begin logging my matches more vigorously to show more of you guys why to bother running Sea's Claim. This card is literally the nuts for us, and by playing it for as long as I have I am confident that I have seen many interactions that aren't always obvious, so I'll do my best to bring my findings here. I'm over here racking up prizes and points every time I play and just want the same for all of you guys.
I have had to back off of MTG a bit the past few months but I am back in now and committed to seeing our archetype continue to improve. We are still a fantastic deck, Fatal Push doesn't scare me one bit, and 2017 looks to be a phenomenal year for us.
Much love to the Fish community!
Interesting! Thanks for the quick response. I'm getting back into this deck and traditional Tron right now, didn't love the look of Todd's list so I'm going with something similar to the Batterskull lists for now. I miss the Conduits a ton though, that thing is one of my favorite creatures in all of MTG, and I remembered you are also very keen on it so thank you for the list! This has given me quite a bit to think about.
Hey WarMachinePrime, can you please link your current list?
Also, making sure you have Islandwalk turned on with a Seas is crucial, as was noted. I would not remove Vapor Snag post-SB, though, but I would definitely remove the master of waves and cut Image - from your list altogether, even. It just isn't good enough.
Vapor Snag interrupts the combo, resets counters on something like a Birds if they bolster/Township it, and is all around great for combat tricks vs their plan B.
FWIW, my brother played Pod for a year, then switched to Abzan Company as company was printed and has played it since. I have literally hundreds of games in vs him, many of those in the top 8's and finals of PPTQ's, GPT's, etc. I don't know if there is a matchup I am more comfortable playing against with Fish simply due to the miles I've put in.
Cowology, I think a given card must be EXTREMELY beneficial to most matchups, or be EXTREMELY specific to a terrible matchup for us to run more than 2 of it in the SB. Examples would be Hurkyl's Recall if you expect Affinity, or a 3rd piece of GY hate if you expect multiple Dredge players. The only other cards I would really consider having more of would be a 3rd Dispel or Tidebinder Mage. Other than that, I can't think of any cards worth that many slots really.
I've followed this deck since it's inception in Modern, and once Shaman of the Pack was spoiled I was hooked for life. I still remember the spoiler being fuzzy for a few days, and how no one believed that card would be a 3-drop.. I had a strong feeling (hope?) that it would be, and bought 3 of my Gilt-Leaf Palaces for $2/each on a Friday.. when I went back for the 4th on Monday after the spoiler cleared up and they were $18! Lol
I check in on here at least once per week, and really would like to have a fresh space to share results,ideas and builds. Despite my deep affection for tribal decks of all kinds (Merfolk is my specialty, followed by anything Eldrazi), I haven't played Elves much in the past year due to a hostile meta at my LGS and being very focused on Eldrazi and Merfolk, but recently some shifts have taken place that put it in a favorable position once again; namely a near complete lack of sweepers around nowadays.
Most recently, I played a straight GW build but I feel like G/B/w has a lot going for it, though I question the value of going with three colors. Is there any upside? Do those upsides overcome the weakeness of stretching the mana that far?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
Shouldn't the GB Infect comments be on another thread?
Not hating on anybody in particular, but it isn't quite the same deck and doesn't have the numbers to justify being discussed here in the Tier 1 forum. It also just kind-of detracts from meaningful conversation about UG builds. It feels very wrong to see the latest discussion of arguably the best thread for the arguably the best deck in Modern is about builds that don't run Blighted Agent and Mutagenic Growth..
You are absolutely correct in that tilt is bad and being calm is good. I am well aware of how to deal with tilt, and how damaging it is to gameplay; it is not something I really deal with- not even when I play my Modern Merfolk vs Affinity!
When I said "pretty tilted" I meant "slightly puzzled and put-off by blatant favortism", not "I got real mad-bad and flustered" as it typically means in this community. I can see how my description did not convey this, my bad! The judge was friends with this gentleman, so I should have expected some level of favoritism. I guess the expectation of clean oversight of the final round must have been out of line
I'll be cutting Gorger, he was sided too often and never felt too strong. I'll probably try Pia and/or Forerunner in the MB. I can see how the Haste on the Scroungers and Copters would help a lot.
Nevelo, when are you bringing in Chandra?
Dredge has been a fine matchup for me, my Sea's Claim approach has been doing tons of work. I do a whole lot of testing against them and find that, once again, Seas into MoW means we just win. I oftentimes just keep them off of Loam and/or Conflagrate mana for the win. I have Relic x2 in sb, but it is just a tool to help me get to the point of dropping Master of Waves. I remove 4 Cursecatcher and 2 Tidebinder for 2 Relic and 4 Sea's Claim currently. Cursecatcher is usually a do-nothing here compared to land-interference. I've been on Negate instead of Remand, but I'm not loving it atm so I'm going to swap those out. That could change my sb tactics a bit, but I won't know until I try.
For anyone having a rough time with this matchup, you should try Claiming their lands and see if you are still afraid of those pesky necromancers!
You really want Chalice on 1 instead of 0 to stop them. Not being able to cantrip or even cast Angel's Grace usually means they scoop. I have made the same mistake (chalice on 0) and it sucks, but next time you will get them!
I always enjoy Sea-effects against them (full disclosure: I enjoy Seas vs basically every deck
Also, the whole Kira-trick is really the saving grace in the matchup. In short, if Kira is out, and they cast Lightning Storm, you can discard one of your lands to redirect Lightning Storm to Kira, triggering her ability. Even if they discard more lands to redirect back to you, the Kira trigger will resolve, countering the Spell. Turning off Boseiju is critical for both the Kira trick and the keeping your Chalice live, so plan to spread some seas on them.
Fair point, and I really appreciate your generous use of reason here! I wouldn't consider how I feel/felt as fuming, as I give no ground to the author and am not angry about it, I just wanted to throw my hat into the ring. Though I can definitely see how it would be easily taken that way - text can be troublesome when it comes to inflection, especially when one like myself prefers stronger language and word choice! Honestly, it was just so off the wall all we can do is laugh and hope others don't eat it up. Did Trump write that article?
Magicman657, I totally agree on the Transformers rating haha
As far as the Valakut matchup goes, it definitely is a close one. I agree that it almost always comes down to being able to deal with the titan for a turn, maybe two. If you cannot do that, it is highly unlikely you'll win the game, but all you need is a bit of tempo to sail through so Vapor Snag/Tidebinder/Remand are the all-stars.
Much love and respect to the Fish community!