Can you all comment on [card]Merfolk Skydiver[/card[? Is a 2/2 flyer good as filler?
I've been working on a tempo version playing 4 Wizard's Retort and 3/3 Spell Pierce/Dive Down split. With only 1 real lord, Merfolk doesnt seem to have enough powerful aggro cards, so maybe midrange/tempo is a better role
Been running this archetype with Living Twister for a few days.Living Twister is very powerful and has won me many games on its own. Being able to use up your excess lands to close out games and take out threats is very good, it also provides 5 toughness vs aggro. If your opponent is not able to remove it, it provides a clock by making every draw from your deck a source of damage.
Overall this deck has been OK, feels very strong with good draws. I've had some nice wins against mono blue, esper, and aggro, but it feels inconsistent. Not sure what this deck needs to be better. From my experience this deck has a hard time with big creatures like Carnage Tyrant and God-Eternal Kefnet, has a hard time with planeswalkers, has a hard time when our threats get removed and we lose tempo, and has some mana problems. Having enough blue sources for turn 1 Pteramander or Opt, having enough green for turn 2 Growth-Chamber Guardian, and having enough red for the majority of our deck especially our double red spells like Living Twister and Crackling Drake, can be a tad bit difficult.
Anyways I'd appreciate feedback on the deck and on Living Twister in this archetype.
I'll look into it. I'm still most high on deeproot champion, but this deck idea seems sweet as well. Those 3 risk factors seem different in a non-burn deck. And you only have 2 counters maindeck? What has been your best matchup and worst?
Blue does things that many different decks want. Some want to card draw, some want counters, some want combo pieces. Same with other colors but those tend to be more specialized. Black is the most generalized as you get it if u want good removal or discard or graveyard stuff. Green is much more narrow. Big strong creatures. White has good sideboard answers to artifacts or enchantments but is best as aggro with red. Outside of mono blue tempo decks most "blue" decks are also heavily other colors. Esper control is strongly black and white with blue for a few counters and draw
Has anyone played this deck recently? The deck I was doing well with, came to a screeching halt when the meta switched from control/combo to midrange. I would like to take another look at [card]Deeproot Champion[card] but it fits into a totally different deck. GCG fits into a sit back and counter type deck. Deeproot fits into a drake type deck. Gonna start with the following core:
If Tyrant was soooo OP why doesnt it see 4x in every green deck? 6 CMC. This deck should be able to kill by turn 7 consistently which means on the play, tyrant doesnt even get to attack. On the draw, it attacks once and then they die.
I would say that the other mono colored decks are rough matchups while multicolored decks like sultai/control are probly much easier. The biggest threat to us are the monocolored 3 drops. Cainwhirler wiping our x/1s, steel leaf an unblockable 5/4 on turn 2, and benalish marshall pumping all those weenies...we cant do much against that
Ok I agree about Krasis so maybe thats settled. Ill take it out of my deck.
I think we should stop playing bad cards. If pteramnder and champion are not good lets not play them. I really wanted champion to be goyf but its not even close. Gruul spell breaker and enigma drake are very strong 3 drops and even merfolk branchwalker smooths out the deck and gives a 3/2 early on. I love it in conjunction with growthchamber guardian.
Does anyone else have any game results? I am somewhere around 45-33 with the deck with most of the wins coming since I made my most recent changes.
I just swapped a creature with the 24th land. Originally I had 22 only, and then went to 23 and now 24. It seems high but I want to cast Frilled Mystic and mid-late game I want to cast 2 counters per turn. That way I can always win the counter war which is important.
Lets talk about champion. When is he good? Im talking vs actually good decks. Obviously every card is good vs bad decks but when is champion good vs, say, mono red? He has no evasion or card advantage. What do you think?
Also, Ive been struggling a bit more lately...probly around a 50% win rate which is fine but not what I was doing earlier. Im wondering if Krassis could be a good sideboard slot vs midrange
So between the last two posts, there seems to be a creature heavy deck and a more spell based version. He is my problem with the 12 creature version. Pteramander rewards you for casting lots instants/sorceries which also goes well with drakes. However, if you are busy adapting Growth Chamber or countering with Mystic, then Pteramander won't adapt soon. When I was playing with those cards I found that many times I didnt have a clock, so was just a bad control deck.
Lol ppl here complaining about nexus too. I still have only lost to nexus decks once. Just play a counterspell and kill them. They usually cant play that many nexi
Pteramander was almost always a 1/1 for me. It wasn't the damage it dealt as much as the threat of Adapting and that damage. It threw off their combat math because I had so many options to respond with which is why I'm also considering Lightning Strike. They know I can't remove threats on their turn with Lava Coil so they can focus on avoiding counters. The only threats that are a potential problem then are Drakes and Rekindling Phoenix, neither of which are as prevalent as they once were. This deck wins on the back your of opponents mistakes which they make because they don't know how we'll interact on their turn.
I'm also considering Spell Pierce, but I have no idea what I'd remove for them.
Can you post your decklist? Is it the same as the original decklist? I feel like a tempo deck like this cannot function without cheap counters like Spell Pierce or Dive Down. I'm not playing Dive Down at the moment, but pierce has been one of the deck's mvps
I've been testing the OP's version with only slight modifications for a little now. I've played Mono White, Boros, Orzhov Knights, Abzan Knights, Abzan Life Gain, Mono Blue, UW Control, and Walls. Still haven't played Mono Red Aggro, Mono Red Burn, Golgari, or Sultai. With the recent GP results it looks like Sultai and Mono Red are the decks to beat.
In the games I've played I've occassionally been light on mana and sometimes just wish for a Spell Pierce or that Lava Coil was Lightning Strike for the instant-speed interaction.
Has anyone else felt similarly? Are there any changes the deck needs to combat Sultai?
I'm thinking of switching Coil to Strike too. There are a few x/4 creatures, like drakes, but not many. Have you felt that version was powerful? How has pteramander? I've only had it been a 5/5 twice I think.
Um...guys...this deck is nuts. I am now like 10-1 since I switched to the current build wit the only loss being on the draw vs red. Control decks are soo easy when you play 3 spell pierce and 3 quench main.
Basically the idea is to drop 2 aggressive creatures and counter that one important spell that the control deck needs to resolve. Not sure how it will work against midrange. I think bigger decks like golgari should be good against this, but since it is already good vs control, and now with the cheaper green creatures, red is easier, so basically we hope to not play midranged decks
If its relevent, I feel like aggro decks need to either be crqzy fast or play some counters main. The new temur reclaimatoin combo deck is really good and control board wipes are always solid too so i think some number of counters is a must
So right now I play on Arena and mono red is everywhere because ppl enjoy noob decks, so I am not sure if this deck is good right now. We don't have many good sideboard cards against red.
Let me edit this...I've been playing with a slightly more aggressive list and it just eats combo...these reclaimation decks are basically a bye. Currently I am playing 9 counters plus 4 Frilled Mystic main, with 3 negates side. Perhaps you all can comment on it.
I've been working on a tempo version playing 4 Wizard's Retort and 3/3 Spell Pierce/Dive Down split. With only 1 real lord, Merfolk doesnt seem to have enough powerful aggro cards, so maybe midrange/tempo is a better role
I'll look into it. I'm still most high on deeproot champion, but this deck idea seems sweet as well. Those 3 risk factors seem different in a non-burn deck. And you only have 2 counters maindeck? What has been your best matchup and worst?
Pteramander
Deeproot Champion
Enigma Drake
With 2-3 slots open for either Hydroid Krasis or Frilled Mystic.
The goal of the deck would be to wreck combo/control game 1 then side completely into a midrange deck game 2. Not sure if it will be good tho.
I would say that the other mono colored decks are rough matchups while multicolored decks like sultai/control are probly much easier. The biggest threat to us are the monocolored 3 drops. Cainwhirler wiping our x/1s, steel leaf an unblockable 5/4 on turn 2, and benalish marshall pumping all those weenies...we cant do much against that
I think we should stop playing bad cards. If pteramnder and champion are not good lets not play them. I really wanted champion to be goyf but its not even close. Gruul spell breaker and enigma drake are very strong 3 drops and even merfolk branchwalker smooths out the deck and gives a 3/2 early on. I love it in conjunction with growthchamber guardian.
Does anyone else have any game results? I am somewhere around 45-33 with the deck with most of the wins coming since I made my most recent changes.
I just swapped a creature with the 24th land. Originally I had 22 only, and then went to 23 and now 24. It seems high but I want to cast Frilled Mystic and mid-late game I want to cast 2 counters per turn. That way I can always win the counter war which is important.
Also, Ive been struggling a bit more lately...probly around a 50% win rate which is fine but not what I was doing earlier. Im wondering if Krassis could be a good sideboard slot vs midrange
Can you post your decklist? Is it the same as the original decklist? I feel like a tempo deck like this cannot function without cheap counters like Spell Pierce or Dive Down. I'm not playing Dive Down at the moment, but pierce has been one of the deck's mvps
I'm thinking of switching Coil to Strike too. There are a few x/4 creatures, like drakes, but not many. Have you felt that version was powerful? How has pteramander? I've only had it been a 5/5 twice I think.
Basically the idea is to drop 2 aggressive creatures and counter that one important spell that the control deck needs to resolve. Not sure how it will work against midrange. I think bigger decks like golgari should be good against this, but since it is already good vs control, and now with the cheaper green creatures, red is easier, so basically we hope to not play midranged decks
Let me edit this...I've been playing with a slightly more aggressive list and it just eats combo...these reclaimation decks are basically a bye. Currently I am playing 9 counters plus 4 Frilled Mystic main, with 3 negates side. Perhaps you all can comment on it.
20 Creatures
4 Growth-Chamber Guardian (RNA) 128
4 Merfolk Branchwalker (XLN) 197
3 Thorn Lieutenant (M19) 203
4 Gruul Spellbreaker (RNA) 179
4 Frilled Mystic (RNA) 174
1 Hydroid Krasis (RNA) 183
17 Non Creatures
3 Spell Pierce (XLN) 81
3 Quench (RNA) 48
3 Ionize (GRN) 179
4 Shock (M19) 156
4 Lava Coil (GRN) 108
3 Stomping Ground (RNA) 259
4 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246
4 Steam Vents (GRN) 257
3 Sulfur Falls (DAR) 247
2 Rootbound Crag (XLN) 256
3 Hinterland Harbor (DAR) 240
2 Island (RIX) 193
2 Forest (RIX) 196
3 Negate (RIX) 44
2 Carnage Tyrant (XLN) 179
2 Crushing Canopy (GRN) 126
4 Wildgrowth Walker (XLN) 216
4 Jadelight Ranger (RIX) 136