The point is that decks more invested in finding specific creatures, like Counters Company, rarely choose this sort of effect. Why would it be any good in a deck where most creatures are similar to each other? You're right, the 1-drops are currently not good. So don't run any. That gives you room for all the good 2s we do have. It's working for me, I 5-0'd using that exact strategy last week.
Those decks don’t choose this kind of card because the have collected company and because they naturally run green.
And yes our creatures are similar to each other but sometimes we need a specific card for a specific boardstate, a lord if we want to close the game, MoW to stabilize against red decks, a trickster to tap something and swing.
You are a far more experienced merfolk player than me so there is a good chance you are right, but if I think it’s still worth a try, I will still try it and see how it works
I'm not impressed with it. Commune with Nature has an identical effect to the front half, has been around for a long time, and rarely sees play, even in creature-centric combo decks. A non-combo deck with mostly interchangeable creatures will get even less mileage out of the effect. I don't intend to test it in Modern. Standard, on the other hand...
I’ve heard the comparison with Commune with Nature many times, I don’t think that’s completly fair though, staying mono blue is a big plus. I would never splash green for something like Commune with Nature but I can see myself staying mono coloured and playing this effect. Plus the other the one drops (except Mistcaller if the meta’s right) suck and on turn 3 we only have merrow rejeerey which sometimes we often don’t run as a 4-of.
Blue Commune with Nature. Does this change any opinions on 1 drops?
Very solid uncommon. Turn one dig 5 is great, it helps you not miss a beat or stumble. The second half can be good for UG, we don’t care that much of a 3/3 ground blocker if the majority of the time with have islandwalk. I defintly try some copies of this (in monoU, still don’t see that much incentive in going UG, plus you don’t need this if you play CoCo in UG)
I think the card is far too narrow to be maindeckable. And if you really want that ability in the side I would just run grafdiggers cage.
On a sidenote: with Trickster being awesome against Tarmagoyf and having Dismember as a 4 if, as well as Harbinger, in the maindeck, wjat do you think of maybe start cutting some number of Relics in place of Grafdiggers Cage? Card looks as good as Relic in all graveyard matchups expect for Living End (which sees margibal play) and Jund/Junk and has the added bonus of hitting CoCo and Chord.
My big issue with Cage is that disruption is much more effective against it than Relic. Relic has a permanent effect (exiling cards) and can be sacced in response to artifact destruction unless you're tapped out.
This is a very good point. Thank you for your answers
I think the card is far too narrow to be maindeckable. And if you really want that ability in the side I would just run grafdiggers cage.
On a sidenote: with Trickster being awesome against Tarmagoyf and having Dismember as a 4 if, as well as Harbinger, in the maindeck, wjat do you think of maybe start cutting some number of Relics in place of Grafdiggers Cage? Card looks as good as Relic in all graveyard matchups expect for Living End (which sees margibal play) and Jund/Junk and has the added bonus of hitting CoCo and Chord.
How does Damping Sphere help against Affinity when we are on the draw? On their second turn they normally play pretty much all of their cards. Did you mean on the pkay or am I missing somethibg?
I had fun with my little Tropical experiment, but the winds of change do not favor it.
That's interesting because -- while Mono-U seems to be better vs. Jund, I would guess the lower to the ground UG deck had a better control (at least non red versions)/JTMS matchup.
MoW seems pretty clunky against Jace.
With the recent unbanning UG gets a ton worse imo.
The default midrange decks will be Bloodbraid Jund/Grixis DS and Jace slots perfectly into Jeskay => Lightning bolt got better and will be again one of the most popular cards => MoW becomes a must.
Against Jace decks there are two paths you can take:
a) Go underneath them, this means frequent T3 and T4 kills
b) Try to grind them out.
UG is clearly not fast enough so Mono U becomes the automatic choice. Mono U with Kira looks like the better choice.
I really don't know hot to feel about the unbannings as merfolk player.
On one side, with JtMS unbanned UW Control list maybe start cutting a few Supreme Verdicts to make room for Jace and the default midrange decks will be Grixis DS/Sultai/Temur, which isn't *that* bad because islandwalk is alway welcomed.
On the other side, it's Jace the Mind Sculptor, card is totally busted.
BBE into K-Command/C-Brutality/LoTV sound bad, maybe we need to sleeve up field of ruin in the maindeck as a 1 or 2 of.
Would it have been asking too much for a Cursecatcher 2.0? mausoleum wanderer but remove the flying and make it Merfolk. I know there are times where Cursecatcher Under preforms but the mausoleum wanderer effect would scale nicely with lords. Would that have been too good?
I don't really think so.
It's just frustrating how the new printed merfolk or one mana too much or lack an ability to be on the same or better level of the other creatures in modern
-Jungleborn Pioneer is one mana more then Dwynens Elite.
-Merfolk Mistbinder is a 2 mana lord but the lack of an extra abilty can be relevant.
-Deeproot Elite is one mana too much to be a Champion of the Parrish and at the same time is a abilty short to be on the same level of Thalia Liutenant while still being only a 1/1.
So close.
nothing good for 'folk save the lord, this time. I really am disappointed by the absence of interactive merfolk in these two sets. Watertrap weaver was a great card that makes the tribe interesting and fun to play, who wants a bunch of big dudes goldfishing for the win?
Agreed, I will test a UG version with the new Kumena Tirant of Orazca, but it's hard not to feel disappointed. At the end of the day, the best card we got out of this block looks to be a 3 mana 2/2 that taps a creature, speaking at least for the mono U version.
This is what I’m going to play when RIX is out.
Looking for feedback. What do you all think?
I always try to make space for at least 2x Relic of Progenitus in the sideboard, card is simply that good. I think only 3 Vapor Snag as interaction is not really enough but I guess this probably depends from the amount of creature decks in your local meta. Otherwise, deck looks solid, only think that I am a bit worried about is that if you fall behind it is going to be hard to catch up, let's hope the deck is fast enough that this doesn't happen
I'll definitely agree that GG merfolk won't make the jump to modern.
But yeah, the saltiness here is kinda weird. Merfolk Mistbinder is instantly better than Phantasmal Image so I don't really see why everyone is so upset about it.
I also don't understand why people are hooked on this idea that Merfolk has to be a tempo deck. If enough cards are released that make Merfolk a better zoo/aggro deck than it is a tempo deck then what is the problem with it changing? Look at what happened to Delver. It basically turned into Death Shadow and no one had any issues with that.
As it is today, no one is running Phantasmal Image. But yeah, the new UG lord of course is better then PI. People are not hooked on the idea that merfolk must be a tempo deck, but it is kinda a necessity bucause even with the new lord decks like affinity and elves are still (surely, not as much as before) faster. We need to gain advantage by inetracting with the opponent and none of the new green cratures does. That's the reason people are somewhat annoyed.
The additional 2 mana lord is nice but I think what most people wanted was something to interact woth the opponent spells (something like a Mausoleum Wanderer, Spell Queller, Spellstrutter Sprite just to name a few). Yes we can win faster but the idea behind Merfolk is to play the tempo game, and lets be honest with ourselves, if you play a deck with 12 2cmc lords and Harbinger as your only interaction with the opponent you are a zoo/aggro deck, not a tempo deck. Plus none of the new merfolk help us in the Lantern, Elves, Valakut and Affinity matchup (even wih the niew lord, Affinity and Elves are still a bit faster then us).
I totally agree with you, I'm greatly disappointed and this forcing us to go UG with printing the only decent Merfolk in green colours is really annoying. The Swift Warden is a great example of this, 1UG or 1UU were a totally reasonable mana cost for it but for some unknown reason they need to be green.
edit: this was meant to be a reply to lord_darkview, I'm new with mtgsalvation so I messed up
Those decks don’t choose this kind of card because the have collected company and because they naturally run green.
And yes our creatures are similar to each other but sometimes we need a specific card for a specific boardstate, a lord if we want to close the game, MoW to stabilize against red decks, a trickster to tap something and swing.
You are a far more experienced merfolk player than me so there is a good chance you are right, but if I think it’s still worth a try, I will still try it and see how it works
I’ve heard the comparison with Commune with Nature many times, I don’t think that’s completly fair though, staying mono blue is a big plus. I would never splash green for something like Commune with Nature but I can see myself staying mono coloured and playing this effect. Plus the other the one drops (except Mistcaller if the meta’s right) suck and on turn 3 we only have merrow rejeerey which sometimes we often don’t run as a 4-of.
Very solid uncommon. Turn one dig 5 is great, it helps you not miss a beat or stumble. The second half can be good for UG, we don’t care that much of a 3/3 ground blocker if the majority of the time with have islandwalk. I defintly try some copies of this (in monoU, still don’t see that much incentive in going UG, plus you don’t need this if you play CoCo in UG)
This is a very good point. Thank you for your answers
On a sidenote: with Trickster being awesome against Tarmagoyf and having Dismember as a 4 if, as well as Harbinger, in the maindeck, wjat do you think of maybe start cutting some number of Relics in place of Grafdiggers Cage? Card looks as good as Relic in all graveyard matchups expect for Living End (which sees margibal play) and Jund/Junk and has the added bonus of hitting CoCo and Chord.
With the recent unbanning UG gets a ton worse imo.
The default midrange decks will be Bloodbraid Jund/Grixis DS and Jace slots perfectly into Jeskay => Lightning bolt got better and will be again one of the most popular cards => MoW becomes a must.
Against Jace decks there are two paths you can take:
a) Go underneath them, this means frequent T3 and T4 kills
b) Try to grind them out.
UG is clearly not fast enough so Mono U becomes the automatic choice. Mono U with Kira looks like the better choice.
On one side, with JtMS unbanned UW Control list maybe start cutting a few Supreme Verdicts to make room for Jace and the default midrange decks will be Grixis DS/Sultai/Temur, which isn't *that* bad because islandwalk is alway welcomed.
On the other side, it's Jace the Mind Sculptor, card is totally busted.
BBE into K-Command/C-Brutality/LoTV sound bad, maybe we need to sleeve up field of ruin in the maindeck as a 1 or 2 of.
Just go read the primer, there is everything you need to know for every matchup.
I don't really think so.
It's just frustrating how the new printed merfolk or one mana too much or lack an ability to be on the same or better level of the other creatures in modern
-Jungleborn Pioneer is one mana more then Dwynens Elite.
-Merfolk Mistbinder is a 2 mana lord but the lack of an extra abilty can be relevant.
-Deeproot Elite is one mana too much to be a Champion of the Parrish and at the same time is a abilty short to be on the same level of Thalia Liutenant while still being only a 1/1.
So close.
Agreed, I will test a UG version with the new Kumena Tirant of Orazca, but it's hard not to feel disappointed. At the end of the day, the best card we got out of this block looks to be a 3 mana 2/2 that taps a creature, speaking at least for the mono U version.
I always try to make space for at least 2x Relic of Progenitus in the sideboard, card is simply that good. I think only 3 Vapor Snag as interaction is not really enough but I guess this probably depends from the amount of creature decks in your local meta. Otherwise, deck looks solid, only think that I am a bit worried about is that if you fall behind it is going to be hard to catch up, let's hope the deck is fast enough that this doesn't happen
As it is today, no one is running Phantasmal Image. But yeah, the new UG lord of course is better then PI. People are not hooked on the idea that merfolk must be a tempo deck, but it is kinda a necessity bucause even with the new lord decks like affinity and elves are still (surely, not as much as before) faster. We need to gain advantage by inetracting with the opponent and none of the new green cratures does. That's the reason people are somewhat annoyed.
edit: this was meant to be a reply to lord_darkview, I'm new with mtgsalvation so I messed up