Honestly it's pointless to look at these 'spoilers' from a set not even coming out now.
On the Eldrazi Tron discussion, that matchup is very good for merfolk. They have trouble answering so many unblockable creatures with the Sea effects taking care of their tron, meaning it takes longer for them to hit the big pay off cards. Only really Ugin, if they run him, and All is Dust, which is counterable, that are troublesome for Merfolk.
Honestly people seem to heavily underrate not taking damage from your lands.
One of the big appeals of mono blue is not only it being much more consistent, but the fact that you take no damage from your lands making it possible to race the decks that are faster than you.
The splash just really isn't worth it for that.
Psionic Blast could work as a fun card, but if you are looking to make your deck as good as possible, it shouldn't make the cut.
Merfolk is a good deck because it is very streamlined.
I'm a big fan of just running as many 4 ofs in the main as possible. It served me well at the GP.
I don't have anything for bogles, because that deck barely pops up at anything relevant. But if it is a problem at your local shop, bring som hibernations, or hope they don't have lifelink.
So i ended up going 11-3-1 mmaking top 64 for a money finish. I took an ID in round 15 to make sure i made top 64 after losing round 14 to Shahar Shenhar playing Jeskai control with As Foretold and Restore Balance which meant being knocked out of top 8 contention.
I beat
3x Affinity
2x Burn
1x Eldrazi Tron
1x Mardu Nahiri
1x Living End
1x Jund Shadow
1x Dredge
1x Merfolk
Losing to Lantern, Storm and Jeskai Control with an ID against Skred.
So the Sea's Claim were huge whenever i brought them in, winning me the 2nd round against burn single handedly. And making it very difficult for Eldrazi Tron to play their spells.
Grafdigger's was only there because i couldn't find my 3rd Relic. Relic was a house against both dredge and the Living End deck.
The MVP of the sideboard were the Hurkyl's Recall which were the only reason i made into prize range, winning me 2 of the 3 games against affinity purely on the back of the card.
Kira in the mainboard ended up being completely useless, but i had expected quite a few spot removal decks from the danish players, as they usually love playing those types of decks.
Overall i was mostly happy with my 75, and definitely happy with my finish, especially considering i hadn't played a lot of magic in the months leading up to the GP.
Grafdigger's cage does not work against living end. Living end exiles the creatures from the graveyard and then brings them into play. Dont make that mistake.
The OGW eldrazi are fine for their mana cost. The problem is that in modern you have access to lands that produce 2 colorless mana, which means you can completely break the curve. A 4/4 for 4 with disruption is completely fine, a 4/4 with disruption played on turn 2 is not fine.
Why do people always overreact to these tournaments?
Last time it was people saying to ban Lantern, this time people are out for Burn and Zoo. Its not like these two decks are overly new or as if they suddenly are doing something completely busted. People have beat Burn and Zoo for years and Burn hasn't even won all that much even with Atarka's Command and Eidolon. Why not let the format react to these decks being brought out and let it adjust accordingly, it did with the 'big bad boogieman' Amulet Bloom, which people were gunning for, for so long. If in 1 month the format is still completely filled in top 8's with Burn and Zoo then we can talk about it again.
Ive been thinking of removing the black splash for a blue splash in the courser list, replacing the sin collecters for 1/2 Glen-Elendra Archmage and 1 Venser, Shaper Savant
Ive played Abzan Company and i turned away from that deck because of the randomness that collected company provided and honestly it doesnt feel great casting a 4 mana spell only to see it fizzle.
I will agree and disagree on the coursers though. They have a beefy body and allow for pseudo drawing, but they do give away a lot of valuble information.
On the Eldrazi Tron discussion, that matchup is very good for merfolk. They have trouble answering so many unblockable creatures with the Sea effects taking care of their tron, meaning it takes longer for them to hit the big pay off cards. Only really Ugin, if they run him, and All is Dust, which is counterable, that are troublesome for Merfolk.
One of the big appeals of mono blue is not only it being much more consistent, but the fact that you take no damage from your lands making it possible to race the decks that are faster than you.
The splash just really isn't worth it for that.
Psionic Blast could work as a fun card, but if you are looking to make your deck as good as possible, it shouldn't make the cut.
Merfolk is a good deck because it is very streamlined.
I'm a big fan of just running as many 4 ofs in the main as possible. It served me well at the GP.
I don't have anything for bogles, because that deck barely pops up at anything relevant. But if it is a problem at your local shop, bring som hibernations, or hope they don't have lifelink.
I beat
3x Affinity
2x Burn
1x Eldrazi Tron
1x Mardu Nahiri
1x Living End
1x Jund Shadow
1x Dredge
1x Merfolk
Losing to Lantern, Storm and Jeskai Control with an ID against Skred.
I played this list:
10x Island
4x Mutavault
2x Wanderwine Hub
2x Cavern of Souls
1x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
Creatures
4x Cursecatcher
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Harbinger of the Tides
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Master of the Pearl Tridant
4x Merrow Reejerey
1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
3x Master of Waves
2x Dismember
2x Spell Pierce
Enchantments
4x Spreading Seas
Artifacts
4x Aether Vial
4x Sea's Claim
3x Hurkyl's Recall
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Dispel
2x Unified Will
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Echoing Truth
So the Sea's Claim were huge whenever i brought them in, winning me the 2nd round against burn single handedly. And making it very difficult for Eldrazi Tron to play their spells.
Grafdigger's was only there because i couldn't find my 3rd Relic. Relic was a house against both dredge and the Living End deck.
The MVP of the sideboard were the Hurkyl's Recall which were the only reason i made into prize range, winning me 2 of the 3 games against affinity purely on the back of the card.
Kira in the mainboard ended up being completely useless, but i had expected quite a few spot removal decks from the danish players, as they usually love playing those types of decks.
Overall i was mostly happy with my 75, and definitely happy with my finish, especially considering i hadn't played a lot of magic in the months leading up to the GP.
Will post list tomorrow, pretty stock though.
Last time it was people saying to ban Lantern, this time people are out for Burn and Zoo. Its not like these two decks are overly new or as if they suddenly are doing something completely busted. People have beat Burn and Zoo for years and Burn hasn't even won all that much even with Atarka's Command and Eidolon. Why not let the format react to these decks being brought out and let it adjust accordingly, it did with the 'big bad boogieman' Amulet Bloom, which people were gunning for, for so long. If in 1 month the format is still completely filled in top 8's with Burn and Zoo then we can talk about it again.
I will agree and disagree on the coursers though. They have a beefy body and allow for pseudo drawing, but they do give away a lot of valuble information.
I feel thatForked Bolt answers earlier threats much better.
If there is so much cheap good removal, why run any creatures at all? Lets just play ad nauseum.
On topic, i think going with Shoal is fine, but what would you want to counter that is 3 mana that is worth losing kcommand over?