There are an awful lot of good U+W enchantments. Before Morningtide, the problem with them is that multiples of the same card generally suck. I think the enchantment tutor is the most important card in the set for control. It's not quite as good as Mystical Teachings, but it's still pretty darn good.
no, this totally fails as a counter for control decks. a real counterspell has the ability to gain you a large amount of tempo advantage (because you usually spend alot less mana to counter than your opponent spent to cast the spell). this card is always a loss of tempo, you spend 2 and have to keep 1 open and your opponent spends nothing.
Well, it will be better in some match-ups (unique threats) and less good in others (interchangeable threats). But passing the turn because your opponent can counter the only spell you have by paying U is not a tempo advantage in my book.
This card will absolutely WRECK the new dragonstorm. The only reason I beat Mono Blue decks now is because they don't have enough counters for the copies. Now all mono blue has to do is have U equivalent to the number of copies I put on the stack.
Interestingly, Pithing Needle also happens to be a great, color-neutral answer for this card...
This can't stop proclamation's forecast since forecast is not a spell.
Right, fixed.
It's a good card. You are forcing your opponent to potentially draw dead cards. You can also stop their best threats, or threats your deck can't originally handle. Needle is not necessarily better. This card is wider. Needle only stops activated abilities. This can help you stop one card entirely. Needle is still good.
It's also a card that requires some brains. You need to know the meta. Also, sometimes you can infer what's in their hand based on what they play if you know their decks. This card can further help/complicate with that type of inference.
This card begs to be tested.
I don't disagree, although Needle frequently stops stuff (land) that is otherwise uncounterable, and stops things already in play. They are similar, but obviously different in important ways.
As others have said, it seems mainly like a gift to U-based aggro, as insurance against Wrath of God, etc.
On the other hand, it is more effective than people are giving it credit for in a few cases - just because you can't have more than 4 copies of a spell in the deck doesn't me the spell can't be played more times - consider Masked Admirers, for instance. Would hose the old Procla-Martyr combination. Also twice as good against anything with Flashback or Buyback.
Probably the best functional analog is Pithing Needle, which can basically neutralize four copies of one card, albeit in a different manner. And Pithing Needle is a pretty decent card.
I would give it a look for the sideboard of my control deck, at least.
I looked at all of the merfolk cards and looked at what you all said.
I also found a good 1 drop that could be good against a deck that has Tarmogof. I think people forgot about Pithing Needle.
This ain't quite the tap abilities this thread is made about. I don't think those tap abilities are going to work. It's very slow. The Merfolk are a little bit expensive in that case and you can't really kill them by attacking. Though with all untap abilities, it could be nice, we only need a big tap abilitie for them.
I'm not sure I understand your comment.
Cryptic Command counters a spell, bounces something, or draws a card in addition to tapping their whole team.
If they attack with everything and you Fog, they are also tapped (and with Pollen Lullaby, possibly for two turns).
Are those not "big tap abilities"?
Either way, you untap and attack for lethal with a swarm of X/X (plus additional +1/+1 from any lords, etc) guys.
If you have 4 guys, one of which is a Lord and another which is Mirror Entity, you need 4 mana to attack for lethal damage with 4 5/5's.
With a good draw, you could do that Turn 5, or maybe even Turn 4 if you're clever and/or run the Merrow 1-drop.
I'm testing a tap/untap version against some t2 decks, and it seems doing ok. Here is the list:
It doesn't act like any regular aggro decks, but usually as time goes, you warm things up. A great drop is Springleaf, followed by a some 2nd drop.
[...]
It's not tier 1, but runs pretty smooth.
This is along similar lines to what I was thinking, although I haven't put together a list yet. I agree that Springleaf Drum is a great 1-drop.
Have you thought about running Mirror Entity? It seems like arguably one of the best "Merrow" in the set. One of the Blue shifters (Shapesharer) may be worth a look too. Powerful ability for a 2-drop, especially in a deck with so many Lords and tech-y creatures.
I'm thinking, as you say, that the normal aggro game plan goes out the window. This is more like a combo deck that stalls while playing for One Big Turn (tm), either attacking with a swarm pumped by Mirror Entity and Lords across a board tapped with Cryptic Command a Fogged alpha strike, or maybe locking the opponent out with Wanderwine Prophets.
Another nice thing about Mirror Entity is that it may allow the use of non-Merfolk with little drawback. I'm thinking, for instance, maybe some Slivers, or Dream Stalker as an early blocker who can re-use Silvergill Adept's ability (Blink is also good with Adept, and in general for dodging removal). Goldmeadow Harrier is another possible 1-drop - more tapping, and for 1 he can become an X/X Merfolk. Cephalid Constable, ... there are a lot of possibilities (even Ornithopter?)
If that's the way to go, then cards like Fortify, Glorious Anthem and of course Coat of Arms that pump your whole team may be worth considering.
Anyway, I think your build is the best I've seen so far, although I might try something like:
2. Merfolks, alas, are not. I tried to make them as competitive as possible, but they die to aggro (4 condemns+ 4 snapback main) and if hte contorl player plays well they die to that too.
I'm going to play Gx aggro or blue-based control. Bye Merfolk.
Merfolk are clearly the most difficult tribe to figure out in Lorwyn and a delicate balance between aggro, control AND combo. Very, very Johnny...
Edit:
Rather than hypotheticals, actually proxy up the deck and test it. You have small critters that will get trampled by aggro, and against control, you cannot keep the number of merfolk you need in play to beat control. And if you could, you would be better served by attacking with them rather than holding them back.
I don't come into this thinking they are great, but rather trying to figure out how they work best. On the other hand, saying it is a given that they can't be any good seems premature. There is a lot of potential tech in those cards. Expecting to play them like straight-out aggro, or evaluating them on that basis, is clearly a bad plan.
Just noticing that Tideshaper Mystic is actually a pretty cool anti-control card, and Pollen Lullabye is potentially a double fog vs. aggro...
Is Mirror Entity perhaps a solution for the problem of underpowered creatures? Works well after playing Cryptic Command during opponent's turn to tap all his creatures, then drop this guy and attack with a swarm of 3/3's, 4/4's, etc.
He is a Merfolk, obviously, so he works fine with all Tribal-related abilities. Gives you another way, with Sygg, to protect your team, enables some interesting combat tricks, and may allow you to sponge tribal tech/lords from the opposing deck.
Seems like one of the better White cards (and Merrow...) in the set, and costed better than most of the other UW creature tech.
Mana Tithe has its fans, but I'm not one of them, at least not yet. For Mana Tithe to do its intended job with any consistency, you really need to run four of them. Control plays for a long game, and it seems to me running cards that become very weak after the first few turns is a bad idea.
MD Remove Soul seems like a safer call, which accomplishes much the same thing, no?
True, it won't stop The Enchantment from Hell, but I'm not expecting to see that main-decked in a meta where heavy, creature-based aggro is expected. So you board in your Flashfreeze for that.
As a UW Control player, UB control looks stronger to me thanks to the strong first-turn play in Thoughtseize. UW's best early play to gain time may be Porphyry Nodes.
first i see Gaddock Teeg... i think that there is still hope for control... then Thorn of Amethyst, and now this... talk about punishing permission... being a player who favors playing control (more specifically permission), i'm quite saddened... wizards really wants players to go for aggro/tribal in the new standard and they have given players good tools to punish those that do not...
I hear ya, bro.
The other thing you didn't mention is that there are no quality early counterspells in this set to replace Remand and Spell Snare.
But hey, once permission becomes a rogue archetype, people will stop sideboarding this, right?
Another thing with the "six-sided die as resource" idea - what about Limited? If you are playing sealed and open a pack with such a card, what if you don't have a die on you?
Yes, obviously at the most competitive level everyone would start carrying one, but still.
I'm guessing it may be something that affects the next game with the same player - you can use something in the current game to gain an advantage in the next, or give up something in the next game to gain an advantage in the current one.
I'm not an MtG old-timer, so I don't know whether this fits the parameters of "first appeared in Unglued" or not, but it seems like something that you could design a decent cycle around.
Well, it will be better in some match-ups (unique threats) and less good in others (interchangeable threats). But passing the turn because your opponent can counter the only spell you have by paying U is not a tempo advantage in my book.
It may also gain in power with other cards that do something similar, like Jester's Scepter, Extirpate, Pithing Needle, some discard, etc.
Interestingly, Pithing Needle also happens to be a great, color-neutral answer for this card...
Right, fixed.
I don't disagree, although Needle frequently stops stuff (land) that is otherwise uncounterable, and stops things already in play. They are similar, but obviously different in important ways.
On the other hand, it is more effective than people are giving it credit for in a few cases - just because you can't have more than 4 copies of a spell in the deck doesn't me the spell can't be played more times - consider Masked Admirers, for instance.
Would hose the old Procla-Martyr combination.Also twice as good against anything with Flashback or Buyback.Edit: Also a very nice hoser against anything Suspended - Greater Gargadon, Ancestral Visions and Riftwing Cloudskate come to mind.
Probably the best functional analog is Pithing Needle, which can basically neutralize four copies of one card, albeit in a different manner. And Pithing Needle is a pretty decent card.
I would give it a look for the sideboard of my control deck, at least.
Pithing Needle is a great card, but relevance does it have against Tarmogoyf?
I'm not sure I understand your comment.
Cryptic Command counters a spell, bounces something, or draws a card in addition to tapping their whole team.
If they attack with everything and you Fog, they are also tapped (and with Pollen Lullaby, possibly for two turns).
Are those not "big tap abilities"?
Either way, you untap and attack for lethal with a swarm of X/X (plus additional +1/+1 from any lords, etc) guys.
If you have 4 guys, one of which is a Lord and another which is Mirror Entity, you need 4 mana to attack for lethal damage with 4 5/5's.
With a good draw, you could do that Turn 5, or maybe even Turn 4 if you're clever and/or run the Merrow 1-drop.
This is along similar lines to what I was thinking, although I haven't put together a list yet. I agree that Springleaf Drum is a great 1-drop.
Ponder is good too. Or Mana Tithe, Piracy Charm, Unsummon, etc...
Have you thought about running Mirror Entity? It seems like arguably one of the best "Merrow" in the set. One of the Blue shifters (Shapesharer) may be worth a look too. Powerful ability for a 2-drop, especially in a deck with so many Lords and tech-y creatures.
I'm thinking, as you say, that the normal aggro game plan goes out the window. This is more like a combo deck that stalls while playing for One Big Turn (tm), either attacking with a swarm pumped by Mirror Entity and Lords across a board tapped with Cryptic Command a Fogged alpha strike, or maybe locking the opponent out with Wanderwine Prophets.
Another nice thing about Mirror Entity is that it may allow the use of non-Merfolk with little drawback. I'm thinking, for instance, maybe some Slivers, or Dream Stalker as an early blocker who can re-use Silvergill Adept's ability (Blink is also good with Adept, and in general for dodging removal). Goldmeadow Harrier is another possible 1-drop - more tapping, and for 1 he can become an X/X Merfolk. Cephalid Constable, ... there are a lot of possibilities (even Ornithopter?)
If that's the way to go, then cards like Fortify, Glorious Anthem and of course Coat of Arms that pump your whole team may be worth considering.
Anyway, I think your build is the best I've seen so far, although I might try something like:
-3 Lord of Atlantis
+3 Mirror Entity
-4 Rune Snag
-4 Mana Tithe
+2-3 Cryptic Command
+3-4 Pollen Lullaby or Dawn Charm
+2 Wanderwine Prophets or Fortify or Coat of Arms
Merfolk are clearly the most difficult tribe to figure out in Lorwyn and a delicate balance between aggro, control AND combo. Very, very Johnny...
Edit:
I don't come into this thinking they are great, but rather trying to figure out how they work best. On the other hand, saying it is a given that they can't be any good seems premature. There is a lot of potential tech in those cards. Expecting to play them like straight-out aggro, or evaluating them on that basis, is clearly a bad plan.
Just noticing that Tideshaper Mystic is actually a pretty cool anti-control card, and Pollen Lullabye is potentially a double fog vs. aggro...
He is a Merfolk, obviously, so he works fine with all Tribal-related abilities. Gives you another way, with Sygg, to protect your team, enables some interesting combat tricks, and may allow you to sponge tribal tech/lords from the opposing deck.
Seems like one of the better White cards (and Merrow...) in the set, and costed better than most of the other UW creature tech.
Mana Tithe has its fans, but I'm not one of them, at least not yet. For Mana Tithe to do its intended job with any consistency, you really need to run four of them. Control plays for a long game, and it seems to me running cards that become very weak after the first few turns is a bad idea.
True, it won't stop The Enchantment from Hell, but I'm not expecting to see that main-decked in a meta where heavy, creature-based aggro is expected. So you board in your Flashfreeze for that.
As a UW Control player, UB control looks stronger to me thanks to the strong first-turn play in Thoughtseize. UW's best early play to gain time may be Porphyry Nodes.
I hear ya, bro.
The other thing you didn't mention is that there are no quality early counterspells in this set to replace Remand and Spell Snare.
But hey, once permission becomes a rogue archetype, people will stop sideboarding this, right?
Not to overreact, but imagine they printed:
Aggro Hoser
1U
Enchantment
Whenever an opponent plays a creature spell, return target creature to its owner's hand.
That is about the equivalent to this, but in reverse.
Yes, obviously at the most competitive level everyone would start carrying one, but still.
I'm guessing it may be something that affects the next game with the same player - you can use something in the current game to gain an advantage in the next, or give up something in the next game to gain an advantage in the current one.
I'm not an MtG old-timer, so I don't know whether this fits the parameters of "first appeared in Unglued" or not, but it seems like something that you could design a decent cycle around.