Hi everyone,
I haven't played Merfolk for a while. Because I'm planning to go to a GPT this weekend, could I get some advice and critique about my current decklist and sideboard plan. Thanks in advance
It has been said that Graffdiggers Cage is not as good as it seems because players are already bringing in artifact hate game 2. The same logic could be applied to Needle.
How true is it? Who's bringing the vial hate and how big of a deal is it?
I'm not running Grafdigger's Cage because it's too narrow, not because it's removable. It really only comes in against Abzan Company, Dredgevine, Elves, Grishoalbrand, and Kiki Chord (and several of those are both fringe and favorable). Pithing Needle is a catch-all, which means it can conceivably contribute in a bunch of different matchups.
Well, against any deck with Snapcaster Mage, Grafdigger's Cage helps a ton. Not that it is the best option but it is still one thing to consider about.
I don't know if I'm more mad about Sprite Noble or Heritage Druid. I mean come on! Cursecatcher is just an all around good card, he doesn't need tribal strategies in draft. He is a force spike with legs, there was no good reason to leave him out. I can understand Lord or other tribal Merfolk but Cursecatcher and True Name are good on their own. They print Sink Hole and Enlightened Tutor, but we are stuck with Merfolk Looter.
Well, True Name would be unreasonable in a draft format though. I agree with you that Cursecatcher is a good card and should be reprinted, but maybe it isn't in the set because Merfolk is not popular in Eternal Formats?
I just thought that Lord of Atlantis is such an iconic card in Magic history and it seriously needs the correct card text (getting tired of getting question from my opponent about it).
IT sticks out to me that you only run 3 mutavaults. its seems pretty bad. Is it a budget thing or is that a preference?
It was a compromise. This article http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/frank-analysis-how-many-colored-mana-sources-do-you-need-to-consistently-cast-your-spells/] suggested I wanted approximately 19 sources of blue mana in order to have double blue by turn 3 in 90% of my games. With 8 cantrips (discounted to 0.25 blue sources each), and counting the Cavern as 1 whole blue (for the purposes of casting a Lord), then I would have 19 blue sources for this configuration of the deck. I wanted to play test with 3 and set a goal to buy the 4th with FNM winnings. It seems like AEther Vial helps to cover the gap when going down to 18 blue sources in a 4 Mutavault version. I've had more issue with the 19 land base sending me too few lands in opening hands and after scry, but that increased threat density does help to bring home games against Jund. I'm not the statistics guru, but it seems like changing between 19 or 20 lands might not increase the overall loss percentage, but rather reallocate loss percentages between losing to flood or losing to missed land drops (or several other scenarios that I can't think of right now b/c tired).
tl;dr
I wanted to play-test some theory and see if 3 Mutavault would streamline play, before I tried 4.
It seems like our thinking are similar to each other. I also am using only 3 mutavaults in my 19 land mono U merfolk deck and the manabase run much, much smoother than when I'm running 4 mutavaults.
With the Eldrazi menace at the moment, though, I haven't done much testing lately (my thinking is that all those testing will come to waste after the inevitable ban) so taking my opinion with a grain of salt. I really want more people to shake up the deck by doing unusual things instead of following the same old formula.
Without running upward of 26 to 27 lands, I have found myself having trouble getting enough lands to make either Sun Titan or Emeria work. This may be due to the fact that I cut all copies of Pilgrim's Eye, and that without casting any card draw spells/cantrips, there is only a 47.2% chance for me to play a land every turn until turn 6. Maybe I should run some more Pilgrim's Eye?
Maybe I'm missing something, but how is Think Twice awful/terrible? It is often a cantrip that could be casted on instant speed and could potentially net you 1 more card later in the game. More importantly, it allows the mana that I held up for counterspell not to go to waste. How is it worse than Whispers of the Muse ?
The reason I prefer Mana Leak over Negate is precisely because I want to counter the opponent's threat on turn 2. The tap-out version doesn't really have a good turn 2 play (mostly creatures) compared to other decks in the format (Tarmogoyf, Arcbound Ravager, Thought-Knot Seer, Kitchen Flinks, Blighted Agent and Silvergill Adept, to name a few). Even though making the opponent overextend into Supreme Verdict is sweet, I might be dead before turn 4.
Emeria: higher land restrictions, a drop slower in theory, requires no mana once it becomes active, provides card advantage
Canonnade: provides two colors, ignores graveyard hate, might be active a bit earlier, takes a lot more mana to use, vulnerable to creature-removal
In general, the more tap-out and white you play, the better Emeria is, while the more permission and blue you play, the better Canonnade is.
Precisely because I took the middle of the road approach so I've decided to split Emeria and Celestial Colonnade. Celestial Colonnade could also serve as a mana sink and a late game threat that is resilent to sorcery removal. Is this approach flawed?
Once again, I am grateful for your input. I know that I am not any good with deck building by any sketch of imagination so your advice would be very important to me.
This is my current list. May I ask some advice from you guys? What should I change in the sideboard and main deck? The local meta is very diverse but affinity and other white decks seem to flourish well.
I would run 4 1 drops- a playset of Cursecatcher and no other 1 drops. He's great in our deck, helps us against removal, it requires our opponent to play around it which makes them loses a tempo, helps us tremendously against combo. He's simply the best 1 drop we have access to and I don't think I want any other 1 drops in my Merfolk deck.
Maybe I didn't phase my question correctly. What I meant was if you have a choice, how many copies of this card would you run (from 1 to, say, 60):
Atlantis Servant U
Merfolk 1/1
~ is unblockable
Sac ~: counter target instant or sorcery spell unless its controller pay 1
Whenever an opponent shuffle his/her library, put +1/+1 counter on ~
Clearly you would run this over cursecatcher. I would like to ask how many copies would you run (a theoretical question, so no maximum number)
I have a theoretical question about merfolk one-drop. Let's assume that I can run any number of a perfect but still somewhat reasonable one-drop (for example, a 1/1 with the combination of Triton Shorestalker, Cursecatcher and Cosi's Trickster card texts). How many would you run?
Personally, I would run 4-6 of them due to the limited flex slots in the deck and being a 1/1 means that it needs other merfolk lords in order to due significant damage. How many would you guys run?
The meta will not change significantly after the Pro Tour in my opinion. Sadly, this is not because the Eldrazi decks aren't great (completely overwhelming in fact) but because of the fear of banhammer Wizards has put on the format. As a Modern player, I am sad.
From channelfireball interview with Petr Sochurek:
"I have spent countless hours perfecting it and I have to say that the deck is much harder to play perfectly than you might think. That being said, the reward for good play isn't that big and I think that I have improved my own skills to the point where it's a bad choice for me.
Let's assume that I play something like a Jund. To illustrate with some made up numbers, maybe my win percentage with Jund against a random opponent is around 60%, but with Merfolk, despite playing that deck perfectly, I would only have 58% because there is really not that much to gain by playing it perfectly".
What do you guys think about his comment? This issue of having small reward for good play would apply for any linear, non-interactive deck in the format as well, wouldn't it?
how many blue sources is considered the absolute minimum? I'm running 13 currently (not counting cavern). Most lists I've seen are at 14. I'm running 20 lands but have 2 GQ main...too many brown sources?
Our decks have Master of Pearl Trident, Lord of Atlantis and Harbinger of the Tides so we would need to have 2 colored mana sources by turn 2. Therefore, we would need to have 20 colored mana sources in our decks.
I am running 16 colored mana sources at the moment. Because each cantrip could be counted as 0.25 colored mana sources, there would be 18 sources in mine (0.25x8=2, 8 due to 4 Spreading Seas and Silvergill Adept). This, combined with aether vial and the fact that we often play Spreading Seas or Adept on turn 2, would mean that I can reliably not get mana screw.
I suspect going down to 14 or 15 colored mana sources would be OK as well. However, you would risk not being able to cast lords/harbinger on turn 2,3 or even 4. If that is OK for you, go for it.
I am running my Uw Merfolk list (so called 'garbage') at the moment, and the Affinity match up is the closest thing in a long time. Not positive winrate at the moment (20 bo3 matches with my buddy, with sideboard, 7-13) but it seems reasonable at least.
Anyway, it's hard to come up with a perfect 75 at the moment due to the upcoming Pro Tour and the meta will certainly shift significantly. Maybe affinity will become even more dominant, maybe not. I think it is best for us to temporarily close this topic and move on.
On some days, I would face no Affinity at all.
On some other days, I would face 2-3 Affinity consecutively in a 4 rounds event.
I still love Merfolk, but it seems unreasonable to keep losing to Affinity players (mind you, it's not 0:100, more like 30:70 but those wins are hard to come by)
I haven't played Merfolk for a while. Because I'm planning to go to a GPT this weekend, could I get some advice and critique about my current decklist and sideboard plan. Thanks in advance
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
2 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Master of Waves
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Cursecatcher
2 Tidebinder Mage
4 Aether Vial
4 Spreading Seas
2 Dismember
Lands (20)
9 Island
4 Wanderwine Hub
4 Mutavault
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Spell Pierce
4 Tectonic Edge
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Gut Shot
18 Tier 1 and Tier 2 decks based on ModernNexus list
Jund
- 2 Cursecatcher
- 2 Harbinger of the Tides
- 1 Merrow Reejery
- 4 Aether Vial
+ 2 Relic of Progenitus
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 4 Tectonic Edge
+ 2 Spell Pierce
Burn
- 2 Spreading Seas
- 2 Dismember
+ 1 Relic of Progenitus
+ 1 Tectonic Edge
+ 2 Spell Pierce
Infect
- 2 Master of Waves
- 2 Merrow Reejery
- 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
+ 2 Gut Shot
+ 1 Relic of Progenitus
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 2 Spell Pierce
Grixis Control/Midrange
- 1 Cursecatcher
- 2 Merrow Reejery
- 2 Tidebinder Mage
- 4 Spreading Seas
+ 2 Relic of Progenitus
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 4 Tectonic Edge
+ 2 Spell Pierce
Affinity
- 3 Cursecatcher
- 2 Master of Waves
- 1 Merrow Reejery
- 2 Tidebinder Mage
+ 2 Gut Shot
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 1 Tectonic Edge
+ 4 Hurkyl's Recall
Merfolk
- 3 Spreading Seas
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 2 Tectonic Edge
Scapeshift
- 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
- 4 Spreading Seas
- 2 Dismember
+ 1 Relic of Progenitus
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 4 Tectonic Edge
+ 2 Spell Pierce
Jeskai Control
- 1 Merrow Reejery
- 2 Tidebinder Mage
- 4 Spreading Seas
- 2 Dismember
+ 2 Relic of Progenitus
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 4 Tectonic Edge
+ 2 Spell Pierce
RG Tron
- 2 Cursecatcher
- 2 Tidebinder Mage
- 2 Dismember
+ 4 Tectonic Edge
+ 2 Spell Pierce
Ad Nauseum
- 2 Master of Waves
- 1 Merrow Reejery
- 2 Dismember
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 2 Spell Pierce
+ 2 Hurkyl's Recall
Kiki Chord
- 2 Harbinger of the Tides
- 2 Master of Waves
- 1 Merrow Reejery
- 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
- 2 Spreading Seas
+ 2 Gut Shot
+ 2 Relic of Progenitus
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 2 Tectonic Edge
+ 2 Spell Pierce
Abzan Company
- 2 Harbinger of the Tides
- 2 Master of Waves
- 1 Merrow Reejery
- 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
- 2 Spreading, Seas
+ 2 Gut Shot
+ 2 Relic of Progenitus
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 2 Tectonic Edge
+ 2 Spell Pierce
Bushwhacker Zoo
- 2 Cursecatcher
- 1 Master of Waves
- 1 Dismember
+ 1 Relic of Progenitus
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 2 Tectonic Edge
Eldrazi
- 1 Merrow Reejery
- 2 Tidebinder Mage
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 2 Tectonic Edge
Abzan/ Junk
- 2 Cursecatcher
- 4 Aether Vial
+ 2 Relic of Progenitus
+ 4 Tectonic Edge
Titan Shift
- 1 Master of Waves
- 1 Merrow Reejery
- 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
- 1 Spreading Seas
- 2 Dismember
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 4 Tectonic Edge
+ 2 Spell Pierce
Elves
- 1 Master of Waves
- 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
+ 2 Gut Shot
+ 1 Tectonic Edge
Death and Taxes
- 2 Cursecatcher
- 1 Merrow Reejery
- 2 Tidebinder Mage
+ 2 Gut Shot
+ 1 Vendilion Clique
+ 2 Tectonic Edge
Well, against any deck with Snapcaster Mage, Grafdigger's Cage helps a ton. Not that it is the best option but it is still one thing to consider about.
Well, True Name would be unreasonable in a draft format though. I agree with you that Cursecatcher is a good card and should be reprinted, but maybe it isn't in the set because Merfolk is not popular in Eternal Formats?
I just thought that Lord of Atlantis is such an iconic card in Magic history and it seriously needs the correct card text (getting tired of getting question from my opponent about it).
It seems like our thinking are similar to each other. I also am using only 3 mutavaults in my 19 land mono U merfolk deck and the manabase run much, much smoother than when I'm running 4 mutavaults.
With the Eldrazi menace at the moment, though, I haven't done much testing lately (my thinking is that all those testing will come to waste after the inevitable ban) so taking my opinion with a grain of salt. I really want more people to shake up the deck by doing unusual things instead of following the same old formula.
Without running upward of 26 to 27 lands, I have found myself having trouble getting enough lands to make either Sun Titan or Emeria work. This may be due to the fact that I cut all copies of Pilgrim's Eye, and that without casting any card draw spells/cantrips, there is only a 47.2% chance for me to play a land every turn until turn 6. Maybe I should run some more Pilgrim's Eye?
Maybe I'm missing something, but how is Think Twice awful/terrible? It is often a cantrip that could be casted on instant speed and could potentially net you 1 more card later in the game. More importantly, it allows the mana that I held up for counterspell not to go to waste. How is it worse than Whispers of the Muse ?
The reason I prefer Mana Leak over Negate is precisely because I want to counter the opponent's threat on turn 2. The tap-out version doesn't really have a good turn 2 play (mostly creatures) compared to other decks in the format (Tarmogoyf, Arcbound Ravager, Thought-Knot Seer, Kitchen Flinks, Blighted Agent and Silvergill Adept, to name a few). Even though making the opponent overextend into Supreme Verdict is sweet, I might be dead before turn 4.
Precisely because I took the middle of the road approach so I've decided to split Emeria and Celestial Colonnade. Celestial Colonnade could also serve as a mana sink and a late game threat that is resilent to sorcery removal. Is this approach flawed?
Once again, I am grateful for your input. I know that I am not any good with deck building by any sketch of imagination so your advice would be very important to me.
Thanks again in advance.
This is my current list. May I ask some advice from you guys? What should I change in the sideboard and main deck? The local meta is very diverse but affinity and other white decks seem to flourish well.
Thanks in advance.
2 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
9 Plains
2 Prairie Stream
2 Celestial Colonnade
Creatures (19)
2 Lone Missionary
4 Wall of Omens
2 Blade Splicer
4 Flickerwisp
3 Court Hussar
3 Sun Titan
1 Snapcaster Mage
3 Path to Exile
2 Supreme Verdict
3 Detention Sphere
3 Mana Leak
2 Think Twice
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Disenchant
2 Stony Silence
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Timely Reinforcements
3 Spreading Seas
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Celestial Purge
1 Kami of False Hope
Maybe I didn't phase my question correctly. What I meant was if you have a choice, how many copies of this card would you run (from 1 to, say, 60):
Atlantis Servant U
Merfolk 1/1
~ is unblockable
Sac ~: counter target instant or sorcery spell unless its controller pay 1
Whenever an opponent shuffle his/her library, put +1/+1 counter on ~
Clearly you would run this over cursecatcher. I would like to ask how many copies would you run (a theoretical question, so no maximum number)
I have a theoretical question about merfolk one-drop. Let's assume that I can run any number of a perfect but still somewhat reasonable one-drop (for example, a 1/1 with the combination of Triton Shorestalker, Cursecatcher and Cosi's Trickster card texts). How many would you run?
Personally, I would run 4-6 of them due to the limited flex slots in the deck and being a 1/1 means that it needs other merfolk lords in order to due significant damage. How many would you guys run?
Thank you
"I have spent countless hours perfecting it and I have to say that the deck is much harder to play perfectly than you might think. That being said, the reward for good play isn't that big and I think that I have improved my own skills to the point where it's a bad choice for me.
Let's assume that I play something like a Jund. To illustrate with some made up numbers, maybe my win percentage with Jund against a random opponent is around 60%, but with Merfolk, despite playing that deck perfectly, I would only have 58% because there is really not that much to gain by playing it perfectly".
What do you guys think about his comment? This issue of having small reward for good play would apply for any linear, non-interactive deck in the format as well, wouldn't it?
From this article: http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/frank-analysis-how-many-colored-mana-sources-do-you-need-to-consistently-cast-your-spells/
Our decks have Master of Pearl Trident, Lord of Atlantis and Harbinger of the Tides so we would need to have 2 colored mana sources by turn 2. Therefore, we would need to have 20 colored mana sources in our decks.
I am running 16 colored mana sources at the moment. Because each cantrip could be counted as 0.25 colored mana sources, there would be 18 sources in mine (0.25x8=2, 8 due to 4 Spreading Seas and Silvergill Adept). This, combined with aether vial and the fact that we often play Spreading Seas or Adept on turn 2, would mean that I can reliably not get mana screw.
I suspect going down to 14 or 15 colored mana sources would be OK as well. However, you would risk not being able to cast lords/harbinger on turn 2,3 or even 4. If that is OK for you, go for it.
Anyway, it's hard to come up with a perfect 75 at the moment due to the upcoming Pro Tour and the meta will certainly shift significantly. Maybe affinity will become even more dominant, maybe not. I think it is best for us to temporarily close this topic and move on.
On some other days, I would face 2-3 Affinity consecutively in a 4 rounds event.
I still love Merfolk, but it seems unreasonable to keep losing to Affinity players (mind you, it's not 0:100, more like 30:70 but those wins are hard to come by)