Round 1 vs. Affinity. My toughest opponent, by far. Played in a Pro Tour and has played Affinity for quite a while. It's his deck. Got him by comboing out the turn after he sacrificed creatures to Ravager to put on Inkmoth Nexus to put me at 5 poison. Got the Vizier and then Ezuri for game. In the next game, I got Fracturing Gust, then Chord of Calling for Kataki. I also drew into Rec Sage and Phyrexian Revoker this game too. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. BR Aggro. This was the Standard list, close to the ones that got 6 places in the top 8 of the last GP Birmingham. He didn't stand a chance. I get a million dudes out in both games. I don't find a payoff, but get double Elvish Archdruid to swing for lethal. In the next game, some small dudes get it done. He literally only played Scrapheap Scrounger, Goblin Whirler, and Heart of Kiran. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. 4 Color Saheeli. Game 1, Nissa's Oath, Lotus Cobra, Felidar Guardian, Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker. I combo but have nothing to do with the infinite mana but a Company that gets double Devoted Druid and sacrificing a Horizon Canopy that gets a land. I lose with 3 land in hand, my 3 draw steps. In the next game, BoP into Saheeli Rai into Felidar Guardian. I did a turn 3 Collected Company after turn 2 Devoted Druid into Archdruid and a Llanowar Elves. Quick losses. 0-2.
Round 4 vs. Infect. I could have played against Abzan, Mono Blue Tron, or Infect. I knew I was playing against Infect and I was right. Good guess. In the first game, he doesn't draw more than the Glistener Elf. I kept putting Nettle Sentinels and other creatures in the way of his pumps and he didn't have Blighted Agent. In the next game, he mulls to 5. He does Glistener Elf, swings me to 5 poison. Then I do Devoted Druid. He attacks and I don't block; 5 more poison on his turn 3. Sweet! In the next game, I do turn 2 Devoted Druid again into Collected Company for an Elvish Visionary and a Dwynen's Eliter. He plays just a Noble Hierarch to go with his Inkmoth Nexus. I go for another Collected Company since I have Qasali Pridemage and Phyrexian Revoker as outs. I get 1 Llanowar Elves. I kill in 3 turns. He kills me on his turn 4. 1-2.
I get 2-2 after starting 2-0. It's been a tough 3 days for me. I lost in the finals of a PPTQ, borrowing a Standard deck on Saturday. I started Legacy 3-0 to finish 3-3 on Sunday and now I went 2-0 into 0-2. Also lost 13 of those 14 die rolls. Nothing really new for me, but a tad worse than my average.
Hey, I know you =P (#TDK).
Also played elves at this same event. Also got owned (1-2 drop)...
Has anyone tried Cryptbreaker in the deck? It's a little slower than the other one drops of the deck, but it still seems like a potentially solid fit in a more madness focused built (with Bloodhall Priests) and can do a good job demanding an answer as a one drop because of how insane it can be if they don't, especially in a game that goes a bit longer.
Thanks for the pointers, just one last question. While I am not planning on going competitive, would an Aether Vial-less at least be good enough for FNM? I really want to break in to the format.
Depends on your LGS. Some are pretty noncompetitive where you'll see a lot of random brews/budget decks/miscellaneous jank/etc. so it'd be perfectly fine in that kind of environment, but some stores are filled to the brim with t1/t2 decks and highly competitive players, so you likely wouldn't do well there. You just have to see what kind of environment your LGS has for modern FNMs.
The reason i have the 30 card "Maybe-board" is because i want to make sure i can suit my sideboard to my meta (currently unknown) without having to constantly order stuff so i think i covered my bases pretty well. Feedback would be awesome!
To add to Rothgar's advice (Dispel would certainly be a great addition to your maybeboard), I'd recommend some number (2+) of Spell Pierce so you can toy with your mainboard interaction to figure out what you like. Remand could also be an option for a mainboard counterspell that you might want to toy with (though I would personally advocate for Pierce and Remand might be slightly pricier, if that can be an issue). From there you can determine what split of Dismember / Vapor Snag / Remand / Spell Pierce / Sea's Claim you like best in the mainboard for your 4-5 interaction flex slots. Sea's claim in particular can be a strong mainboard spell, but it isn't suited to every metagame so it could very easily be something you want to adjust and mainboard counters are always an option you want to have when building Merfolk.
Let's start with that I obviously approve of your maindeck, since it's identical to mine.
In the Affinity matchup, I always trim the Master of Waves - a lot of those games just go too quickly for it to make an impact. Cursecatcher isn't great, but it's a body of the relevant type that only costs U, and every once in a while that comes in handy.
I would trim 2 the Spell Pierce against Burn if you're bringing in 3 Dispel - Master of Waves and Seas effects can end the game on the spot when they resolve, so you want as many of those effects as you can carry. I've had Spell Pierce be a feels-bad on occasion when they're slinging a Lighting Bolt they topdecked while they have 3+ lands in play (Seas don't stop them from paying 2, after all).
As far as Jeskai Nahiri goes, Lord_Velysarn says he keeps his Sea's Claim in against it (he runs 8 Seas in the main). I'm not so sure that's the right call, but he says it works, so it's worth a try. I don't like taking out Merrow Reejerey for it, though I can't really come up with a palatable alternative. Report back on this one.
If there's anything I didn't mention, it's because I agreed with it.
Best maindeck XD.
I've always trimmed Master of Waves previously against Affinity, but I've seen some take out a few cursecatcher because of it's effect being weak in the matchup so I began to doubt myself and think it should be some split between the two. It seems I should stick to taking out Master of Waves, though.
For burn, I guess hitting spell pierce is really just the next best thing to take out. Feels strange considering how much I tend to like it against them mainboard, but the logic seems to check out.
As for Jeskai, based on Lord_Velysarn's response, the full sideboard plan I mentioned will at least be what I initially test. I'm still somewhat skeptical but I can definitely see how it would work so I'm excited to try it. Sadly, I don't play against Jeskai much (possibly just by chance, my LGS meta changes a ton from week to week) so it might be a while before I get to test much there. Will definitely try to report back.
Do you have any suggestions on what to take out against Eldrazi after Cursecatcher? Lord_Velysarn suggests taking it out in favor of sea's claim and doing so definitely makes sense to me (cursecatcher has always felt weak in the matchup, not sure why I didn't think of it as a cut), but if I'm bringing in Sea's claim I feel I should be bringing in tec edge against them as well. So I can cut the cursecatchers for 3x Sea's Claim and 1x Tec Edge, but I don't know what to cut for the last two tec edge. Spell pierce is a possibility as it might just be weaker than everything else, but it definitely has it's applications (especially post board against explosives).
[quote from="Killua »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/tier-1-modern/648255-merfolk?comment=5916"]
This is very similar to how I've learned to use Sea's Claim over the last year, and all in all I think it is the best way to use them. Our builds are eerily similar, super cool. Being able to contrast and compare our builds, choices, and results would be very interesting, especially since you're just getting going on this.
My only differences are that I haven't used Tectonic Edge with the Sea's Claim for additional denial that much, but it is a good plan, and a few minor changes. SB changes would be -1 dispel, -3 tec edge, +2 negate, +2 relic. I usually have -1 Harbinger, -1 Reejerey, +2 Kira as far as creatures are concerned.
As far as your sb plan goes, my perspective would be:
Vs Affinity, I would trade two Spreading Seas for two Sea's Claim. Being able to apply islandwalk is what matters most with Spreading Seas here, so Sea's Claim is just more efficient. Also, Rothgar13 is correct in saying Cursecatcher stays in, and MoW goes out!
Vs Jeskai, Please please please bring in your Sea's Claim vs them! You will have the time of your life. I wrote a page or two back about how good 8 Seas (7 counts as 8 seas for all intents and purposes) is against them. I have been slaughtering Jeskai Control basically this entire past year. I lost maybe 2-3 matches when Nahiri came out, but once I got a feel for their new style it has been very easy to win. It is tied with Burn as my best matchup right now. I do run 2 Kira mb, which gives me a lot edge, but it is always the Seas that win me the match. Removing Reejerey and Harbinger is correct here, too vulnerable and don't provide the type of value you need in this match.
Vs Dredge, I shave Harbinger and remove Spell Pierces. They are good but not as good as Sea's Claim.
Vs Eldrazi, Spell Pierce is pretty good. I remove Cursecatcher for Sea's Claim, he is the weakest creature in that matchup for me so far. Negate comes in handy for the E.E., if you run it.
VS Tron, you are bringing in tools that allow you to slow down the game, prevent tron from going online, and you add devotion while doing so. I wouldn't remove Master with this plan, Harbinger is a much weaker creature here, comparatively. Harbinger can help race, sure, but you should go for denial and then Alpha Strike with Maaster of Waves and elementals, imo.
Let me know if you have any other questions, Killua.
Much love to the Fish community!
Interesting idea for Affinity. Makes sense that you would want the seas effect to be cheaper in such a speedy matchup. I'm a bit hesitant, since post board I do feel like I want that draw a card to dig a bit deeper for a Hurkyl's, but that is a relatively small chance statistically so I'll have to try it out.
Will certainly be testing the full land hate package against Nahiri. It seems strange going down so low on creatures, but if it works it works. Do you recommend a similar plan against Grixis decks (midrange/control)?
Glad to hear Sea's claim is good against dredge. Assumed it would be but wasn't entirely sure (especially considering how good the maindeck is against them and that I'd have to be taking out good cards for it).
Definitely makes sense to cut cursecatchers against Eldrazi, not sure how I didn't think about that. I feel like I should be bringing in the tec edges against them too, considering how many high cost spells they play, but I don't know what the last two cuts should be (maybe spell pierce is the next worse card despite hitting stuff like explosives?). Any suggestions there? Gut shot could also somewhat further the mana denial plan by hitting their dorks, but that seems like it'd just be too cute.
I like your suggestion for Tron. I'm used to taking out Master of Waves due to how slow he is and how quickly I want the game to be over, but it definitely makes sense that with Sea's claim the extra devotion and land hate increases his worth and that with all the land hate we slow them down enough to get in that alphastrike with him (and from there Harbinger is the best cut). Not used to factoring in stuff like the extra value Master of Waves gets from Sea's Claim in my boarding choices (I do really like how the two interact, particularly since it seems like we tend to want Sea's Claim in all the matchups that MoW is an allstar).
What is everyone's consensus on playing Cage over Relic at this point? Cage seems to hit more important cards/ matchups... But I do love drawing that extra card.
I think if you want the card for the hate it provides specifically in particular matchups, Grafdigger's is the better choice. If you want something to just generally have a bit of interaction against graveyards and be able to bring in more generally, Relic is better. Which I'd go with or how I'd split between them depends on the rest of my build.
Been working on making a Sea's claim build. I'm not convinced the card belongs mainboard, but the land hate plan is one of my favorite aspects of Merfolk so I think the build will really suit me. I'm fairly convinced I've developed the 75 I want to try, but I haven't done any testing aside from playing against myself yet. Having a little bit of trouble figuring out some of my sideboard plans, so help would be appreciated.
The main deck is fairly stock, but it's the maindeck I've liked the most out of every variation I've played and it fits well with the sideboard so I'm sticking with it. Now for notes/explanations on the card choices:
No Kira - Kira's a great card, don't get me wrong, but she often just feels really clunky in too many matchups. Mainboard, I'd rather not have her due to consistency issues and how poor she often feels against aggressive decks and sideboard she just doesn't cover any of the real weaknesses I want covered.
No Phantasmal Image - Same general concept as Kira, phantasmal image can have a really high ceiling, but he also causes some consistency issues. I tend to prefer focusing on consistency when building the deck so he doesn't make the cut for me.
Spell Pierce - Has applications against basically everything and is particularly important going against combo. It can be dead in some matchups (if they just ramp out of range before we get the chance to use it or empty their hand to quickly like Affinity), but even against Affinity (the primary matchup I'd actually call spell pierce nearly dead) I need to be very lucky to take game one anyway so it doesn't make a huge difference. Remand is solid, but I much prefer my interaction to be 1 cmc and one of my favorite parts of this build is that all of it is. These have been great for me so I'm sticking to them.
Removal - The build is pretty removal light overall. Dismember is great, but I'm not a fan of the card mainboard (it's bad far more often than vapor snag). In the board, I chose gut shot over dismember for my single removal spell a couple reasons. Dismember is better against grindy decks like Abzan and Jund, but I already have all my land hate to bring in there so by the time I'm bringing in Dismember the cards I'm taking out are getting better in the matchup (I'd be taking out creatures like Cursecatcher / Harbinger for it, they aren't amazing in the matchup but they're still creatures). It's also better against Merfolk and possibly Death's Shadow Zoo/Eldrazi (though with both of those I might be in a similar situation to Jund/Abzan), but I don't think that outweighs the strength gut shot has against Infect/Affinity/Abzan Company/Elves/etc. since I'd rather have more coverage there. Gut Shot is more narrow, but with the rest of my board in place it just hits the matchups I want to hit with that removal slot. Similarly vapor snag is even more broad than dismember and I'm just not a fan of it in the board, despite it's synergy with the land hate (another reason I feel fine going removal light, in the matchups I'd particularly care about something like dismember I'm likely bringing in the land hate package and my vapor snags/harbingers have a good chance of turning into pseudo-permanent removal).
Counterspells - I generally want 4-6 counterspells in a merfolk list, depending on what counterspells they are and how many I'm running mainboard. With 2 Pierce mainboard and 3 dispel side, I feel I have really solid protection from combo (especially since its all one mana and easy to fit into my gameplan). I also don't feel like I need any more broad counterspells because of the way the land hate package deals with the kind of things I want to hit postboard that dispel won't be able to handle (example - Tron, where Negate would be great to take care of walkers). The land package allowing me to comfortably go all in on dispels for my sideboard counters and hit basically everything I need them to is really nice.
Land Hate Package - I wanted some room in the sideboard for something other than the land hate/Hurkyl's (I consider Hurkyl's pretty mandatory), so I didn't go the full 4 tec edge/4 seas claim. I cut one from each because of how they affect different matchups and I think I'm happy with that combination. In my testing when I bring the package in I hit multiple land hate spell fairly consistently (and when I only want sea's claim the 7 seas effects are enough - not to mention that I get to call the deck 7 seas Merfolk).
Grafdigger's Cage - I don't like not having at least one gy hate piece and I think that one grafdiggers cage serves me better than an additional land hate card or removal, for example. I chose Cage over Relic because I already have enough to bring in against the decks where Relic is better (aside from Living End which I feel fine against anyways) and the matchups cage is better I particularly wanted a little more against (shutting down CoCo, for instance - I have dispels, but that never feels like a clean answer since they might just not have a coco/chord and I'm stuck holding it up incase). I also generally think Grafdigger's is the generally better hate card, it's just that Relic surpasses it when we need a card we can bring in for more generally, which isn't what I need hear considering how general the dispel + land hate package is and what matchups it hits hardest.
So from there, onto sideboard planning (looking pretty much only at t1 decks, since it'd be too huge a wall of text otherwise):
Jund----
The Land Hate package should be particularly excellent here so I think the Jund matchup will be even better than usual (and I consider it a mathcup we're well positioned in to begin with). Considering the huge presence of Jund, this should be a huge positive.
Still our weakest matchup, but 4 Harbinger's mainboard helps. I'm also running 2x Vapor Snag which are great in the matchup and the full 4 Hurkyl's in the board. The singleton Gut Shot can also be incredible in this matchup (steel overseer is a problem for us, for instance, and gut shot is absurd against it). I won't say I'm well positioned here, it's not really feasible for us to be well positioned in the matchup, but I think this build has an above average Affinity matchup as far as Merfolk goes.
In: 4x Hurkyl's Recall, 1x Gut Shot
Out: 2x Spell Pierce, 3x Master of Waves/Cursecatcher
Not entirely sure what combination of Master of Waves/Cursecatcher I should be taking out here (I think they are the next weakest cards in the matchup after pierce, but each still serves a valid role).
Infect----
Tons of interaction and cheap counterspells makes me feel great about my Infect matchup. It doesn't take much of a board presence to race them and the build is more than capable of interacting with them enough to delay and pull out a win.
In: 3x Dispel, 1x Gut Shot
Out: 4x Master of Waves
Burn----
This matchup should be incredible. 7-8 seas offers tons of potential free wins against them, with each seas effect acting as essentially a stone rain (they have almost no generic mana cost in their spells). Combine that with our natural gameplan and 5 cheap counterspells and this seems like it will be insane. There's a small nonbo between the seas effects and cursecatcher/pierce (in that cursecatcher and pierce just give them something to use their dead lands on if the land hate plan is going strong), but each part of that is individually so strong against them that I don't think it should be an issue. The only question is what I should be taking out. I think Merrow Reejerey is a solid choice to take out because he's a bit slow and we often don't need to actually do that much damage to them so we don't need extra lords, but beyond that I'm a bit lost. One Master of Waves can probably come out despite how game ending he can be (he's still slow a bit and multiples can be really bad), but he's strong enough that I don't want to bring out more than one, especially with how he synergizes with the seas effects. For my last card, I'm really just not sure what to take out (possibly even just a pierce for the nonbo mentioned above?).
This is where I'm really having trouble coming up with a plan. I'm fairly certain my matchup is fantastic here. It was already great before and the stuff I have that I can bring in against them is way better than my previous build (and the maindeck is the same). The question is just what the hell that should be since there are so many possibilities. I've liked my land hate against them in the path (when I was running just Spreading Seas + Tec Edge), so sea's claim seems like it could be an improvement to that, but I'm not entirely sure because the draw a card is huge in making that not just feel like I'm putting myself at a card disadvantage. Dispel is also obviously great at protecting my creatures and stopping huge spells like a potential cryptic (though they don't always run that). Grafdigger's cage is also great at shutting down snapcasters and their main win condition, so I think I'd want that (it does put me down a card since it doesn't help my own gameplan much, but I think that's more than worth it for that combination of shutting down their gameplan). Reejerey, Harbinger, and Vapor Snag (despite being able to save creatures) are all not great here, and that gives 10 slots which is exactly enough to bring in the sideboard cards I mentioned I might want, but taking out 8 creatures seems like it might just leave me too creature light (20 creatures + 4 mutavaults) so I'm not convinced on it. It's entirely possible that really just is enough to get the job done when they have to work through 10 land hate spells and 5 strong counters that pair with them, but I feel like it'd require substantial testing before I'm convinced it's the correct path (though when I think of replacing each card individually it seems better each time so it just might be). Advice and suggestions/reasoning here would be greatly appreciated.
Possible In: 3x Tectonic Edge, 3x Sea's Claim, 3x Dispel, 1x Grafdigger's Cage
Possible Out: 4x Merrow Reejerey, 4x Harbinger of the Tides, 2x Vapor Snag
Dredge----
I've found I really like our place in this matchup. I haven't heard much about it, but my intuition says Sea's claim should be solid here as well (from what I've seen conflagrate is our real issue and we can keep them off the mana for it fairly easily with sea's claim, the islandwalk is also huge in the matchup). Grafdigger's card also puts in work here. The only issue here is what to bring out. Bounce effects are amazing against them, Lords are particularly amazing here as well. There's just nothing to take out. I could take out just about anything for Grafdigger's Cage and feel like it's an upgrade, but I don't know what's actually by itself something I want less than Sea's Claim, so I'm not sure what to board here. Once again, suggestions/reasoning would be appreciated.
Eldrazi----
Already feel well positioned here, but I'm not sure how to board against them in general. Dispel seems like an upgrade to Spell Pierce since almost all their interaction is instants, but they also have Ancient Stirrings and Engineered Explosives so I'm not sure there. Land hate also seems solid, but so is the rest of my gameplan so I'm not sure what I should be bringing in/what it would be better than.
Death's Shadow Zoo----
Really easy to color screw them so the Sea's Claim come in. Dispel is also great at preventing their combo (our main fear since we can kill them incredibly easy with all the damage they do to themselves). Master of Waves is slow and so is Reejerey (and we don't need the extra pump there very often), so those are my cuts.
The mirror is pretty generally a tossup either way, though having 4x Harbinger maindeck is something I like and makes me feel favored if the opponent doesn't. Not sure if dispel should be brought in over the spell pierce (since there is the possibility of hitting a vial. Gut Shot isn't great, but feels like an upgrade to spell pierce. Leaving Spreading Seas in since it at least hits mutavault if their mana is already great and gives MoW devotion (so I think it's better than Pierce and anything I would bring in).
Not a tier one deck (though it basically is by how close it is), but I want to mention it because of how insane I think this matchup is with the build. Spell Pierce mainboard, 10 land hate spells, this matchup seems like we'd be unstoppable. Just taking out the Snags (only hit Wurmcoil, which we can attack through with all the seas) and Master of Waves (a bit too slow for what we want).
I'll leave things there since I basically covered all the matchups I really have questions on for the build. Any suggestions on a card I might've overlooked to include would be more than welcome (and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions about card choices I might've overlooked addressing). If you think my reasoning is off for my sideboard plans I'd love to hear why, and help on the matchups I'm unsure on would be especially appreciated.
With regards to the new counterspell, I'll say what I said on reddit:
This is hilariously terrible in comparison to Hurkyl's aggainst affinity. By the time we can reasonably hold up a counter against affinity there's a good chance they've spewed their hand. Hurkyl's allows us to establish a board state the first 2-3 turns and then completely reset theirs and put them under a quick clock and take the game. With any sort of clock Hurkyl's is a game winning spell against affinity, this is at best a mild improvement to our normal gameplan against them.
If you want *more* affinity hate it might be somewhat okay, but even that seems iffy and would need some testing. Aside from affinity it only hits Tron and a couple fringe decks effectively (remember eldrazi runs 4 caverns which would make the card entirely dead the majority of the time, it'd be questionable to even bring it in against them). I don't think we can affort to run that many narrow cards in the board. It also can't really take our counterspell slot because it doesn't hit the decks we want those against (control and especially combo). Incredibly unlikely this even comes close to making the cut.
The difference between Recall and the new Counterspell is the flexibilty of the sideboardcard. Lets be honest, Recall was only good in Lantern and Affinity. The Counterspell however does things against other Matchups as well. holding up a single blue in Tron is a lot easier than holding up 2mana. Having a cmc1 counter against Thoughtknot or Smasher sound nice too. I just love to see a cmc1 counter that can handle creatures/planeswalkers.
My issue with this argument is that I'm not at all convinced this helps against Eldrazi with their 4 maindeck caverns. Even if it does it's incredibly minor at best there considering how solid our maindeck cards already are in the matchup (aside from possibly some mainboard spell pierce). So what do we get by trading one of these for a Hurkyl's?
A huge loss against affinity (this card is okay at best against them and not even close to the game changer that Hurkyl's is - it's basically a worse steel sabotage against them and steel sabotage doesn't come close to getting the job done).
A loss against lantern (hard to say here but I think I'd prefer Hurkyl's, our game against them revolves around ensnaring bridge and I'd rather be able to retroactively answer it than need the counter while it's coming down - lantern controls your draws quite a bit, which makes this closer, but a single Hurkyl's can also deal with multiple bridges and this can't so I think Hurkyl's has a distinct edge here).
A significant gain against tron, though not as huge as the loss against affinity. The card is good against them but not nearly as good as Hurkyl's is against affinity in comparison to this.
So where does that leave us? Let's even say that we do want this card against eldrazi (if we are running mainboard spell pierce for example). Let's even say that wanting it balances out the difference between Hurkyl's and this against lantern (probably reasonable if we do want it against eldrazi, due to the prevalence difference between the decks). Even with those assumptions in favor of the card, we are still simply trading off a gain against Tron for a more significant loss against affinity. Considering that affinity is our worst matchup and we're already pretty solid against tron without this card, that's far from a decent tradeoff. Even in a meta that's something like 50% tron, we still have better options available to deal with it (sea's claim/tec edge). The only time I could justify it's conclusion would be in some kind of incredibly warped meta where affinity and tron specifically are the top two decks and are something insane like more than half the metagame combined. In that case you'd just want this in addition to the Hurkyl's rather than instead of it. And at that point its specific enough a metagame that it isn't worthwhile in considering for whether the card will generally be viable for the deck.
Good points, but against the Eldrazies, I would argue that it does help! You can spreading sea/sea's claim their caverns, and it's not like Bant Eldrazi is an easy match-up right now.
It's not exactly a hard matchup. I don't feel particularly favored in the matchup but from what I've heard, Eldrazi doesn't even particularly like their chances so we're probably slightly favored. Also what would we even take out against them for it? All our creatures are relevent and we definitely want to keep in the occassional mainboard creature cuts like Reejerey and Harbinger (cursecatcher is below average here, but still often a relevent body and importantly a turn 1/vial on 1 play). Spreading seas is also great in the matchup so that's not a cut. They are a midrangey deck, but not in the same sense as Jund where we'd want to take out vial. The only thing it'd be potentially better than is our mainboard removal if we are running vapor snag (Dismember would likely be better if you run that). And even then valor snag is still a solid card against them and we'd be substituting it with a card with higher potential upside but a solid chance to be completely dead due to cavern (and us not having a seas effect). Honestly, I'd rather just have the vapor snag personally. Even if that's incorrect and it's an improvement on vapor snag it's an incredibly minor one. That still leaves the card in a place where Eldrazi isn't an actual *reason* to run it like Tron would be.
With regards to the new counterspell, I'll say what I said on reddit:
This is hilariously terrible in comparison to Hurkyl's aggainst affinity. By the time we can reasonably hold up a counter against affinity there's a good chance they've spewed their hand. Hurkyl's allows us to establish a board state the first 2-3 turns and then completely reset theirs and put them under a quick clock and take the game. With any sort of clock Hurkyl's is a game winning spell against affinity, this is at best a mild improvement to our normal gameplan against them.
If you want *more* affinity hate it might be somewhat okay, but even that seems iffy and would need some testing. Aside from affinity it only hits Tron and a couple fringe decks effectively (remember eldrazi runs 4 caverns which would make the card entirely dead the majority of the time, it'd be questionable to even bring it in against them). I don't think we can affort to run that many narrow cards in the board. It also can't really take our counterspell slot because it doesn't hit the decks we want those against (control and especially combo). Incredibly unlikely this even comes close to making the cut.
Looking forward to hearing your rationale for those choices, though 8-Seas with 4 Snags in reserve seems sound. That said, I'm not sure how I feel about the 3rd Dispel. How about trying to sneak in a 1-of Spellskite in that spot? It's done well for me.
I just despise that card I hate sideboard cards that our opponents are naturally prepared for. I could run Chalice against Infect, that's great, but it's not flexible and I don't think Chalice is very good vs anything else right now in the meta anyway except against Ad Nauseam (which is the other problematic combo deck to be honest). Other playable options are Tidebinder Mage and some 2cmc counter.
Dispel is just very relevant against:
Infect
Suicide Zoo
Ad Nauseam
Coco/Chord decks
Jund (if you want to)
Burn (this is very important here)
Random combo decks and Random control decks (they will be a small portion but could make up 2 matches in a GP)
Spellskite is relevant against most of those decks, but again they will be prepared. All my infect opponents had a dismember in hand for example.
Don't think I'm a fan of 8 seas, but I really like this sideboard suite, enough that I'll probably test it out. Seas seems to synergize incredibly well with Snag/Dispel/Tec Edge and I really like the choice of dispels for the countersuite since I feel like the mana denial plan should handle anything non-instant (Tron being a major example). I might even want to find room for one additional dispel, though, as only having three seems weak to spell decks (maybe I'll throw a vapor snag main and go 7 seas or take out a tec edge, not sure). Looks really fun and love how slimmed down the build is so I'm excited to test it.
Made top 8 at a PPTQ today for my first time! Second PPTQ I've been to and I've been playing about ~7 months so I'm pretty happy with my progress. Was 7 rounds of swiss for 90 people and I went 5-1-1 and got the 8th seed through tiebreakers. Will try to post a more in depth report later but for now I'll give a quick summarry:
Round 1: RG Tron, 2-1 Win
Round 2: Bant Eldrazi, 1-1-1 Tie
Round 3: Bant Eldrazi, 2-1 Win
Round 4: RG Tron (against Joe Lossett! really cool to meet a player I've watched), 2-0 Win
Round 5: Affinity, 0-2 Loss
Round 6: BG Melira Company, 2-1 Win
Round 7: RW Control (Prison?), 2-0 Win
After making top 8, I got matched up against the round 5 affinity player who was number 1 seed. Game 1 was close and I think I should have won even though he had the play. I spreading seas'd a Darksteel Citadel thinking it'd prevent it from being an artifact (it actually just takes away all land types, sadly). Later, he was able to sac the citadel to his Ravager to turn off my island walk and take the game. He also had a mountain in play, but he was fine on colored sources so I thought taking away an artifact for the potential ravager/cranial plating would be good. Oh well, can't know how everything works exactly so it was a good learning experience (and I'm still happy with even getting a PPTQ top 8 having not played too long). Game two I got off the back of Hurkyl's and lords, but game three I had to mull to 5 (and even that 5 was sketchy) and he had a solid hand so that was basically game over.
As for my deck list, it's pretty heavily different from the one I've previously posted for Monday Night Moderns. I went to my first PPTQ last week and there were a couple things I really wanted to change (wanted spell pierce main, Kira felt clunky, and Chalice of the Void was awful despite drawing it in the matchups it's supposed to be good). Deck list is here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/merfolk-modern-pptq-82816/. Was very happy with the changes, spell pierce felt great, as did the sideboard (the amount of one ofs seems a bit strange, but it allowed me to have the amount of cards I wanted to bring in for the cards I want to take out in matchups like Jund while trying to maximize my strength against the more aggressive matchups). Only changes I'd make right now is to get the last two Wanderwine Hubs that I want (only didn't play them because I don't have them) and to possibly replace one of the negates with something, though I'm not sure yet what would best take over the slot (want to think on that more). Both losses were to affinity, and I only drew Hurkyl's in one of 3 post board games (and that one I won), so I think the losses are more or less expected. Despite losing to Affinity both times, I think I could very well have won the second match if I knew what I was doing with spreading seas, so Hurkyl's definitely feels like it earned its slots. Happy with the day overall, even though I feel like I could have gone further without the one misplay.
Edit: Forgot to mention, PPTQ was at a store called Plus EV Games.
As usual, leave any comments on any huge mistakes.
Maindeck
14 Island
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
4 Mutavault
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
2 Merrow Reejerey
2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
4 Master of Waves
If you are trying to stop Living End with Grafdigger's Cage, that would be a mistake to bring in. Living end brings in the creatures from exile which Grafdigger's doesnt affect.
I have some problems with the list. Cage is excellent versus Coco, but that's a deck on decline. It's the worst piece of sideboard interaction versus Dredge. It doesn't actually manipulate their graveyard which is what you want to do. You want to exile stuff permanently. They will bring in sb hate to kill the Cage.
The other part is the 8 seas. Yes it screws the opponent but it's awful in the mirror, and no removal versus the likes of Infect and Bant Eldrazi preboard? Yikes!
It is an interesting list but I don't think it's worth it. There's so many fast deck out there that cutting all the removal seems really bad. Add to this the amount of times you seem to board out the Sea's Claim and I am of the opinion the card is not worth it.
Cage is much better against Dredge than Relic imo. With either we want to drop it early (or risk them going off when we don't have it on board) but Relic then needs us to hold up mana to crack it at the right time each turn (the first ability generally being irrelevant unless they are doing something wrong, tapping out makes the thing completely useless whether they have removal for it or not). We generall would want to crack it the first time it looks like they'll get a decent amount of power in play (t2 or t3 if we're lucky), but we're also delaying ourselves a ton in the process (by setting outsleves back a turn on mana). In a worst case scenario for Cage where they have turn two removal for it, we've still delayed anything from happening until their third turn and have gotten to play a two drop on our second turn. In that situation, Relic will have drawn us a card and eliminated their graveyard, but at best we have a vial with no counters or a cursecatcher in play. Relic takes an advantage there, but I really wouldn't call it a huge one (their graveyard will still be pretty miniscule. In the scenario where they don't have hate removal in their opening hand (in addition to everything else they need to make an opening hand work), on the other hand, they need to not dredgs and naturally draw into an answer for the cage which is very often a free win (even if they find frmoval for it we've delayed then more than enough). Cage I can just drop and ignore while I begin my own gameplan, which just fits so much better with what we need to be doing in the matchup. I still run a Relic (on one of each atm) because of how generally useful it is (especially aginst grindy matchups), but Cage is far and away the card I'd rather see against dredge.
As for 8 seas, I compeltely agree. Can't say that it seems even close to worth it.
Fish newbie here and I've got a few questions on the match against suicide zoo. At 34:18, why didn't the zoo player use his gurmag angler to block Nikachu's mutavault ?
Also, why did Nikachu held back and didn't attack with his master of the pearl trident?
Mutavault was unblockable due to Islandwalk. As for why he didn't attack with the master, it doesn't make a difference as the opponent is dead anyway (slaughter pact would be one card the opponent could cast here maybe? It'd be incredibly strange in death's shadow, and even then would not due anything because of Kira). Assuming there was some possible combination of cards for the opponent to find a way out, attacking with the master doesn't change that - if they can somehow kill something they can either kill the master and then they can block something else with Angler now that Islandwalk is gone or simply kill something else and block the master to kill it. If they somehow had a way to gain life to survive the attack he went with (also not sure what the hell that'd be), attacking with master doesn't change that as it just runs into the Angler and dies for free.
Random question, but what do we think of our matchup against Mardu Midrange/Control style decks? Played against one a couple weeks back and it felt pretty unfavorable. My intuition was to play the grind game (side out Aether Vial, etc.), similar to playing against something like Jund, but unlike Jund sticking a Master of Waves isn't nearly as backbreacking for them. The Spreading Seas + Tec Edge package still felt fantastic, and it's entirely possible I was just unlucky that they were always able to answer my Master of Waves (I drew three one game and had all of them pathed), but it really just seems like a far more difficult Jund for us. I ended up going 1-0-1 against them in the match, losing game 1 and going to time in game 2 in possibly the grindiest game I've ever played (though I was in a favorable position when it finally ended, with them even having to topdeck with a bob at 1 health at one point, though they survived through that and healed up a bit). Another Merfolk player later had a matchup agains them where they were able to simply agro them out, not going for the grindy gameplan (keeping in Aether Vial, for example). Their Master of Waves also happened to not be answered, so that is likely the difference in the match, but how easy the match seemed there as opposed to how intense it was when I was playing made me doubt whether I was approaching it correctly. Any thoughts?
As a side note related to the above conversation about if we ever flash in Harbinger, I did so in the second game against Mardu in response to Lili +1 to avoid discarding and get Harbinger in play without simply dying to her -2. You could do the same through a Vial, but we don't always have a vial and in this case I had sided it out as well.
Hey, I know you =P (#TDK).
Also played elves at this same event. Also got owned (1-2 drop)...
Depends on your LGS. Some are pretty noncompetitive where you'll see a lot of random brews/budget decks/miscellaneous jank/etc. so it'd be perfectly fine in that kind of environment, but some stores are filled to the brim with t1/t2 decks and highly competitive players, so you likely wouldn't do well there. You just have to see what kind of environment your LGS has for modern FNMs.
To add to Rothgar's advice (Dispel would certainly be a great addition to your maybeboard), I'd recommend some number (2+) of Spell Pierce so you can toy with your mainboard interaction to figure out what you like. Remand could also be an option for a mainboard counterspell that you might want to toy with (though I would personally advocate for Pierce and Remand might be slightly pricier, if that can be an issue). From there you can determine what split of Dismember / Vapor Snag / Remand / Spell Pierce / Sea's Claim you like best in the mainboard for your 4-5 interaction flex slots. Sea's claim in particular can be a strong mainboard spell, but it isn't suited to every metagame so it could very easily be something you want to adjust and mainboard counters are always an option you want to have when building Merfolk.
Best maindeck XD.
I've always trimmed Master of Waves previously against Affinity, but I've seen some take out a few cursecatcher because of it's effect being weak in the matchup so I began to doubt myself and think it should be some split between the two. It seems I should stick to taking out Master of Waves, though.
For burn, I guess hitting spell pierce is really just the next best thing to take out. Feels strange considering how much I tend to like it against them mainboard, but the logic seems to check out.
As for Jeskai, based on Lord_Velysarn's response, the full sideboard plan I mentioned will at least be what I initially test. I'm still somewhat skeptical but I can definitely see how it would work so I'm excited to try it. Sadly, I don't play against Jeskai much (possibly just by chance, my LGS meta changes a ton from week to week) so it might be a while before I get to test much there. Will definitely try to report back.
Do you have any suggestions on what to take out against Eldrazi after Cursecatcher? Lord_Velysarn suggests taking it out in favor of sea's claim and doing so definitely makes sense to me (cursecatcher has always felt weak in the matchup, not sure why I didn't think of it as a cut), but if I'm bringing in Sea's claim I feel I should be bringing in tec edge against them as well. So I can cut the cursecatchers for 3x Sea's Claim and 1x Tec Edge, but I don't know what to cut for the last two tec edge. Spell pierce is a possibility as it might just be weaker than everything else, but it definitely has it's applications (especially post board against explosives).
Interesting idea for Affinity. Makes sense that you would want the seas effect to be cheaper in such a speedy matchup. I'm a bit hesitant, since post board I do feel like I want that draw a card to dig a bit deeper for a Hurkyl's, but that is a relatively small chance statistically so I'll have to try it out.
Will certainly be testing the full land hate package against Nahiri. It seems strange going down so low on creatures, but if it works it works. Do you recommend a similar plan against Grixis decks (midrange/control)?
Glad to hear Sea's claim is good against dredge. Assumed it would be but wasn't entirely sure (especially considering how good the maindeck is against them and that I'd have to be taking out good cards for it).
Definitely makes sense to cut cursecatchers against Eldrazi, not sure how I didn't think about that. I feel like I should be bringing in the tec edges against them too, considering how many high cost spells they play, but I don't know what the last two cuts should be (maybe spell pierce is the next worse card despite hitting stuff like explosives?). Any suggestions there? Gut shot could also somewhat further the mana denial plan by hitting their dorks, but that seems like it'd just be too cute.
I like your suggestion for Tron. I'm used to taking out Master of Waves due to how slow he is and how quickly I want the game to be over, but it definitely makes sense that with Sea's claim the extra devotion and land hate increases his worth and that with all the land hate we slow them down enough to get in that alphastrike with him (and from there Harbinger is the best cut). Not used to factoring in stuff like the extra value Master of Waves gets from Sea's Claim in my boarding choices (I do really like how the two interact, particularly since it seems like we tend to want Sea's Claim in all the matchups that MoW is an allstar).
I think if you want the card for the hate it provides specifically in particular matchups, Grafdigger's is the better choice. If you want something to just generally have a bit of interaction against graveyards and be able to bring in more generally, Relic is better. Which I'd go with or how I'd split between them depends on the rest of my build.
4 Æther Vial
Creatures (28)
4 Cursecatcher
4 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Master of Waves
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Spreading Seas
Instants (4)
2 Spell Pierce
2 Vapor Snag
Lands (20)
2 Cavern of Souls
8 Island
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
4 Mutavault
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
4 Wanderwine Hub
4 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Sea's Claim
3 Tectonic Edge
3 Dispel
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Gut Shot
The main deck is fairly stock, but it's the maindeck I've liked the most out of every variation I've played and it fits well with the sideboard so I'm sticking with it. Now for notes/explanations on the card choices:
So from there, onto sideboard planning (looking pretty much only at t1 decks, since it'd be too huge a wall of text otherwise):
Jund----
The Land Hate package should be particularly excellent here so I think the Jund matchup will be even better than usual (and I consider it a mathcup we're well positioned in to begin with). Considering the huge presence of Jund, this should be a huge positive.
In: 3x Sea's Claim, 3x Tectonic Edge
Out: 4x Aether Vial, 2x Spell Pierce
Affinity----
Still our weakest matchup, but 4 Harbinger's mainboard helps. I'm also running 2x Vapor Snag which are great in the matchup and the full 4 Hurkyl's in the board. The singleton Gut Shot can also be incredible in this matchup (steel overseer is a problem for us, for instance, and gut shot is absurd against it). I won't say I'm well positioned here, it's not really feasible for us to be well positioned in the matchup, but I think this build has an above average Affinity matchup as far as Merfolk goes.
In: 4x Hurkyl's Recall, 1x Gut Shot
Out: 2x Spell Pierce, 3x Master of Waves/Cursecatcher
Not entirely sure what combination of Master of Waves/Cursecatcher I should be taking out here (I think they are the next weakest cards in the matchup after pierce, but each still serves a valid role).
Infect----
Tons of interaction and cheap counterspells makes me feel great about my Infect matchup. It doesn't take much of a board presence to race them and the build is more than capable of interacting with them enough to delay and pull out a win.
In: 3x Dispel, 1x Gut Shot
Out: 4x Master of Waves
Burn----
This matchup should be incredible. 7-8 seas offers tons of potential free wins against them, with each seas effect acting as essentially a stone rain (they have almost no generic mana cost in their spells). Combine that with our natural gameplan and 5 cheap counterspells and this seems like it will be insane. There's a small nonbo between the seas effects and cursecatcher/pierce (in that cursecatcher and pierce just give them something to use their dead lands on if the land hate plan is going strong), but each part of that is individually so strong against them that I don't think it should be an issue. The only question is what I should be taking out. I think Merrow Reejerey is a solid choice to take out because he's a bit slow and we often don't need to actually do that much damage to them so we don't need extra lords, but beyond that I'm a bit lost. One Master of Waves can probably come out despite how game ending he can be (he's still slow a bit and multiples can be really bad), but he's strong enough that I don't want to bring out more than one, especially with how he synergizes with the seas effects. For my last card, I'm really just not sure what to take out (possibly even just a pierce for the nonbo mentioned above?).
In: 3x Dispel, 3x Sea's Claim
Out: 4x Merrow Reejerey, 1x Master of Waves, 1x ????
Jeskai Nahiri----
This is where I'm really having trouble coming up with a plan. I'm fairly certain my matchup is fantastic here. It was already great before and the stuff I have that I can bring in against them is way better than my previous build (and the maindeck is the same). The question is just what the hell that should be since there are so many possibilities. I've liked my land hate against them in the path (when I was running just Spreading Seas + Tec Edge), so sea's claim seems like it could be an improvement to that, but I'm not entirely sure because the draw a card is huge in making that not just feel like I'm putting myself at a card disadvantage. Dispel is also obviously great at protecting my creatures and stopping huge spells like a potential cryptic (though they don't always run that). Grafdigger's cage is also great at shutting down snapcasters and their main win condition, so I think I'd want that (it does put me down a card since it doesn't help my own gameplan much, but I think that's more than worth it for that combination of shutting down their gameplan). Reejerey, Harbinger, and Vapor Snag (despite being able to save creatures) are all not great here, and that gives 10 slots which is exactly enough to bring in the sideboard cards I mentioned I might want, but taking out 8 creatures seems like it might just leave me too creature light (20 creatures + 4 mutavaults) so I'm not convinced on it. It's entirely possible that really just is enough to get the job done when they have to work through 10 land hate spells and 5 strong counters that pair with them, but I feel like it'd require substantial testing before I'm convinced it's the correct path (though when I think of replacing each card individually it seems better each time so it just might be). Advice and suggestions/reasoning here would be greatly appreciated.
Possible In: 3x Tectonic Edge, 3x Sea's Claim, 3x Dispel, 1x Grafdigger's Cage
Possible Out: 4x Merrow Reejerey, 4x Harbinger of the Tides, 2x Vapor Snag
Dredge----
I've found I really like our place in this matchup. I haven't heard much about it, but my intuition says Sea's claim should be solid here as well (from what I've seen conflagrate is our real issue and we can keep them off the mana for it fairly easily with sea's claim, the islandwalk is also huge in the matchup). Grafdigger's card also puts in work here. The only issue here is what to bring out. Bounce effects are amazing against them, Lords are particularly amazing here as well. There's just nothing to take out. I could take out just about anything for Grafdigger's Cage and feel like it's an upgrade, but I don't know what's actually by itself something I want less than Sea's Claim, so I'm not sure what to board here. Once again, suggestions/reasoning would be appreciated.
Eldrazi----
Already feel well positioned here, but I'm not sure how to board against them in general. Dispel seems like an upgrade to Spell Pierce since almost all their interaction is instants, but they also have Ancient Stirrings and Engineered Explosives so I'm not sure there. Land hate also seems solid, but so is the rest of my gameplan so I'm not sure what I should be bringing in/what it would be better than.
Death's Shadow Zoo----
Really easy to color screw them so the Sea's Claim come in. Dispel is also great at preventing their combo (our main fear since we can kill them incredibly easy with all the damage they do to themselves). Master of Waves is slow and so is Reejerey (and we don't need the extra pump there very often), so those are my cuts.
In: 3x Dispel, 3x Sea's Claim
Out: 4x Master of Waves, 2x Merrow Reejerey
Merfolk----
The mirror is pretty generally a tossup either way, though having 4x Harbinger maindeck is something I like and makes me feel favored if the opponent doesn't. Not sure if dispel should be brought in over the spell pierce (since there is the possibility of hitting a vial. Gut Shot isn't great, but feels like an upgrade to spell pierce. Leaving Spreading Seas in since it at least hits mutavault if their mana is already great and gives MoW devotion (so I think it's better than Pierce and anything I would bring in).
In: 1x Gut Shot, 1x Dispel (possibly)
Out: 2x Spell Pierce (possibly 1)
RG Tron----
Not a tier one deck (though it basically is by how close it is), but I want to mention it because of how insane I think this matchup is with the build. Spell Pierce mainboard, 10 land hate spells, this matchup seems like we'd be unstoppable. Just taking out the Snags (only hit Wurmcoil, which we can attack through with all the seas) and Master of Waves (a bit too slow for what we want).
In: 3x Sea's Claim, 3x Tectonic Edge
Out: 4x Master of Waves, 2x Vapor Snag
I'll leave things there since I basically covered all the matchups I really have questions on for the build. Any suggestions on a card I might've overlooked to include would be more than welcome (and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions about card choices I might've overlooked addressing). If you think my reasoning is off for my sideboard plans I'd love to hear why, and help on the matchups I'm unsure on would be especially appreciated.
My issue with this argument is that I'm not at all convinced this helps against Eldrazi with their 4 maindeck caverns. Even if it does it's incredibly minor at best there considering how solid our maindeck cards already are in the matchup (aside from possibly some mainboard spell pierce). So what do we get by trading one of these for a Hurkyl's?
- A huge loss against affinity (this card is okay at best against them and not even close to the game changer that Hurkyl's is - it's basically a worse steel sabotage against them and steel sabotage doesn't come close to getting the job done).
- A loss against lantern (hard to say here but I think I'd prefer Hurkyl's, our game against them revolves around ensnaring bridge and I'd rather be able to retroactively answer it than need the counter while it's coming down - lantern controls your draws quite a bit, which makes this closer, but a single Hurkyl's can also deal with multiple bridges and this can't so I think Hurkyl's has a distinct edge here).
- A significant gain against tron, though not as huge as the loss against affinity. The card is good against them but not nearly as good as Hurkyl's is against affinity in comparison to this.
So where does that leave us? Let's even say that we do want this card against eldrazi (if we are running mainboard spell pierce for example). Let's even say that wanting it balances out the difference between Hurkyl's and this against lantern (probably reasonable if we do want it against eldrazi, due to the prevalence difference between the decks). Even with those assumptions in favor of the card, we are still simply trading off a gain against Tron for a more significant loss against affinity. Considering that affinity is our worst matchup and we're already pretty solid against tron without this card, that's far from a decent tradeoff. Even in a meta that's something like 50% tron, we still have better options available to deal with it (sea's claim/tec edge). The only time I could justify it's conclusion would be in some kind of incredibly warped meta where affinity and tron specifically are the top two decks and are something insane like more than half the metagame combined. In that case you'd just want this in addition to the Hurkyl's rather than instead of it. And at that point its specific enough a metagame that it isn't worthwhile in considering for whether the card will generally be viable for the deck.It's not exactly a hard matchup. I don't feel particularly favored in the matchup but from what I've heard, Eldrazi doesn't even particularly like their chances so we're probably slightly favored. Also what would we even take out against them for it? All our creatures are relevent and we definitely want to keep in the occassional mainboard creature cuts like Reejerey and Harbinger (cursecatcher is below average here, but still often a relevent body and importantly a turn 1/vial on 1 play). Spreading seas is also great in the matchup so that's not a cut. They are a midrangey deck, but not in the same sense as Jund where we'd want to take out vial. The only thing it'd be potentially better than is our mainboard removal if we are running vapor snag (Dismember would likely be better if you run that). And even then valor snag is still a solid card against them and we'd be substituting it with a card with higher potential upside but a solid chance to be completely dead due to cavern (and us not having a seas effect). Honestly, I'd rather just have the vapor snag personally. Even if that's incorrect and it's an improvement on vapor snag it's an incredibly minor one. That still leaves the card in a place where Eldrazi isn't an actual *reason* to run it like Tron would be.
This is hilariously terrible in comparison to Hurkyl's aggainst affinity. By the time we can reasonably hold up a counter against affinity there's a good chance they've spewed their hand. Hurkyl's allows us to establish a board state the first 2-3 turns and then completely reset theirs and put them under a quick clock and take the game. With any sort of clock Hurkyl's is a game winning spell against affinity, this is at best a mild improvement to our normal gameplan against them.
If you want *more* affinity hate it might be somewhat okay, but even that seems iffy and would need some testing. Aside from affinity it only hits Tron and a couple fringe decks effectively (remember eldrazi runs 4 caverns which would make the card entirely dead the majority of the time, it'd be questionable to even bring it in against them). I don't think we can affort to run that many narrow cards in the board. It also can't really take our counterspell slot because it doesn't hit the decks we want those against (control and especially combo). Incredibly unlikely this even comes close to making the cut.
Don't think I'm a fan of 8 seas, but I really like this sideboard suite, enough that I'll probably test it out. Seas seems to synergize incredibly well with Snag/Dispel/Tec Edge and I really like the choice of dispels for the countersuite since I feel like the mana denial plan should handle anything non-instant (Tron being a major example). I might even want to find room for one additional dispel, though, as only having three seems weak to spell decks (maybe I'll throw a vapor snag main and go 7 seas or take out a tec edge, not sure). Looks really fun and love how slimmed down the build is so I'm excited to test it.
Round 1: RG Tron, 2-1 Win
Round 2: Bant Eldrazi, 1-1-1 Tie
Round 3: Bant Eldrazi, 2-1 Win
Round 4: RG Tron (against Joe Lossett! really cool to meet a player I've watched), 2-0 Win
Round 5: Affinity, 0-2 Loss
Round 6: BG Melira Company, 2-1 Win
Round 7: RW Control (Prison?), 2-0 Win
After making top 8, I got matched up against the round 5 affinity player who was number 1 seed. Game 1 was close and I think I should have won even though he had the play. I spreading seas'd a Darksteel Citadel thinking it'd prevent it from being an artifact (it actually just takes away all land types, sadly). Later, he was able to sac the citadel to his Ravager to turn off my island walk and take the game. He also had a mountain in play, but he was fine on colored sources so I thought taking away an artifact for the potential ravager/cranial plating would be good. Oh well, can't know how everything works exactly so it was a good learning experience (and I'm still happy with even getting a PPTQ top 8 having not played too long). Game two I got off the back of Hurkyl's and lords, but game three I had to mull to 5 (and even that 5 was sketchy) and he had a solid hand so that was basically game over.
As for my deck list, it's pretty heavily different from the one I've previously posted for Monday Night Moderns. I went to my first PPTQ last week and there were a couple things I really wanted to change (wanted spell pierce main, Kira felt clunky, and Chalice of the Void was awful despite drawing it in the matchups it's supposed to be good). Deck list is here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/merfolk-modern-pptq-82816/. Was very happy with the changes, spell pierce felt great, as did the sideboard (the amount of one ofs seems a bit strange, but it allowed me to have the amount of cards I wanted to bring in for the cards I want to take out in matchups like Jund while trying to maximize my strength against the more aggressive matchups). Only changes I'd make right now is to get the last two Wanderwine Hubs that I want (only didn't play them because I don't have them) and to possibly replace one of the negates with something, though I'm not sure yet what would best take over the slot (want to think on that more). Both losses were to affinity, and I only drew Hurkyl's in one of 3 post board games (and that one I won), so I think the losses are more or less expected. Despite losing to Affinity both times, I think I could very well have won the second match if I knew what I was doing with spreading seas, so Hurkyl's definitely feels like it earned its slots. Happy with the day overall, even though I feel like I could have gone further without the one misplay.
Edit: Forgot to mention, PPTQ was at a store called Plus EV Games.
If you are trying to stop Living End with Grafdigger's Cage, that would be a mistake to bring in. Living end brings in the creatures from exile which Grafdigger's doesnt affect.
Cage is much better against Dredge than Relic imo. With either we want to drop it early (or risk them going off when we don't have it on board) but Relic then needs us to hold up mana to crack it at the right time each turn (the first ability generally being irrelevant unless they are doing something wrong, tapping out makes the thing completely useless whether they have removal for it or not). We generall would want to crack it the first time it looks like they'll get a decent amount of power in play (t2 or t3 if we're lucky), but we're also delaying ourselves a ton in the process (by setting outsleves back a turn on mana). In a worst case scenario for Cage where they have turn two removal for it, we've still delayed anything from happening until their third turn and have gotten to play a two drop on our second turn. In that situation, Relic will have drawn us a card and eliminated their graveyard, but at best we have a vial with no counters or a cursecatcher in play. Relic takes an advantage there, but I really wouldn't call it a huge one (their graveyard will still be pretty miniscule. In the scenario where they don't have hate removal in their opening hand (in addition to everything else they need to make an opening hand work), on the other hand, they need to not dredgs and naturally draw into an answer for the cage which is very often a free win (even if they find frmoval for it we've delayed then more than enough). Cage I can just drop and ignore while I begin my own gameplan, which just fits so much better with what we need to be doing in the matchup. I still run a Relic (on one of each atm) because of how generally useful it is (especially aginst grindy matchups), but Cage is far and away the card I'd rather see against dredge.
As for 8 seas, I compeltely agree. Can't say that it seems even close to worth it.
Mutavault was unblockable due to Islandwalk. As for why he didn't attack with the master, it doesn't make a difference as the opponent is dead anyway (slaughter pact would be one card the opponent could cast here maybe? It'd be incredibly strange in death's shadow, and even then would not due anything because of Kira). Assuming there was some possible combination of cards for the opponent to find a way out, attacking with the master doesn't change that - if they can somehow kill something they can either kill the master and then they can block something else with Angler now that Islandwalk is gone or simply kill something else and block the master to kill it. If they somehow had a way to gain life to survive the attack he went with (also not sure what the hell that'd be), attacking with master doesn't change that as it just runs into the Angler and dies for free.
As a side note related to the above conversation about if we ever flash in Harbinger, I did so in the second game against Mardu in response to Lili +1 to avoid discarding and get Harbinger in play without simply dying to her -2. You could do the same through a Vial, but we don't always have a vial and in this case I had sided it out as well.