So I haven't played MTG much since... last summer? And even then, I didn't know what was being played/what was good/what was jank. Can anyone fill me in what happened in terms of the last two sets? I've played some RTR and liked it.
For reference, I play MBC, Merfolk, Zoo and Slivers, if that helps.
(Not sure where to ask, thought Casual would be the place to be)
Considering I'm not playing Mutavault and Wasteland for budget reasons (but I have 4 aether vial from my goblin deck however), how many lands should I play : 19 or 20 ?
Okay doing some quick math here; adding an extra island would give you a 75% chance of drawing more than two islands in the first draw, while keeping it at 19 islands would keep it at 72%. Keep this in mind this is in the first draw. Personally you don't need more than two islands in your first draw (because of aether vial and your good amount of other free goodies). You will have a 94+% chance of drawing an island no matter what though, so that is okay.
However, I don't feel that it would be comfortable playing on two lands with this deck, in case you need to daze or cast things like propaganda. By the third turn, there's a good 5% chance that you won't draw three islands. What this means is that propaganda would become a pretty late draw. Also, using the same math, aether vial is at 39% in the first drop, which is pretty important since you need it to cast things without mana.
All in all, 20-22 lands should be more worth, since being able to cast things is always nice. They give you a nice back-up, and raise the probability of drawing islands by a good 10-15%, meaning you won't get mana screwed.
(This is all done with hypergeometric distribution, assuming a deck size of 60 and draws of 7, 8, 9, testing both 19, 20 and 22 lands.)
I am putting together a millfolk deck and I was wondering if Devout Invocation is worth playing as a one of in the deck maybe as an alternate win-con that has synergy with the rest of the deck. Any thoughts on that?
Devout Invocation puts out an army of 4/4 flyers. Running Lord of Atlantis will give you as big of an army with fish. While they don't have evasion, if you have enough fish to tap out for DI, you should have enough fish to kill the other guy with really, really big fish.
I think the gist of this thread is that you can't go mono-green and it HAS to be G/x
White gives you tokens, convoke, other things like that.
Black gives you sac outlets and possibly graveyard shenanigans through Thelon and others.
Blue gives you tempo, Paradox haze and draw.
Black is probably the strongest splash if you opt to run attrition
To be honest, the blue splash requires a bit more than paradox haze to justify. Go four of them so you can put in some tempo to get you to late game. It's going to take a hella long time for you to consistently chuck out tokens, so you're going to want to put in something like Into the Roil, Temporal spring or Remand.
Scatter the seeds is alright, but sprout swarm is just better and recurrable. Just get rid of it, you need the spaces for more things.
the highest mana cost of any of my cards would be 3 though, how could 18 not supply an adequate amount of land? i didnt even realize the combo of wake thrasher and merrow commerce however, thanks for the heads up, that is a pretty unhelpful combo indeed. im not really into mixing white in either and i dont see the usefulness of those white cards either in terms of achieving what i want in terms of either milling quickly or damage. id be interested in hearing your reasoning for suggesting those cards
White really helps you in terms of consistency in removal and token generation late game, and that really helps you win match-ups where you can't win straight out.
I've ran merfolk with an average cmc of 2 and you still need two or three lands at least to run; with 18 lands it's a lot less consistent and i still get mana screwed with around 24 lands.
I'll edit this post later after reading the thread a bit more because I forgot what I posted, but that's basically the reason why Uw/Ux merfolk is better than mono-blue millfolk
EDIT:
I think I wasn't clear about what I was saying; I've found merfolk with a splash of mill to not be as good or win as consistently as either straight millfolk or straight aggrofolk. The reason is that Drowner of Secrets is a three-drop with 1 power that forces you to tap all your merfolk down; it won't win as fast and you won't be able to snowball like you would with aggrofolk. However, if you do go millfolk, Judge of Currents will mitigate a lot of damage over time; if you do some math and calculate how much you would gain a turn, you might gain over 20 life in one game.
I don't think he's going for full aggro-folk though. He has drowner and rootwater thief and grimoire thief. I don't think he needs the extra wake thrasher or damage.
However, silvergill adept is always the best card, so i would advise you replace reef shaman or aquitect's with it. 3-4 Islandwalk enablers are good enough.
EDIT:
I just looked at your list a bit more; it seems like you need to either focus on milling or damage. Also, just 18 islands isn't good enough. If you're going to do millfolk, i think it would be a good idea to splash white for judge of currents, summon the school and oblivion ring.
Wake thrasher doesn't go very well with merrow commerce as well, btw.
Hymn to tourach is probably the best black removal ever. It generates too much card advantage to not be useful, and it's a random discard, so it's more potent than just "target opponent discards a card."
That totally went over my head as I didn't play magic for the last month or so.
Yeah, it definitely works but is more of a tempo card and more for running in a wizard-ish merfolk deck, probably somewhat like millfolk and such. Aggro merfolk won't really have a place for it.
This is what I'm running currently. It's meant for mostly multiplayer but probably functions around the same in 1v1. I'm having trouble with consistancy here but I don't really see the problem (I lost my fourth reejerey :/), mainly $$. Any comments?
ALSO: I updated the opening post to include master of the pearl trident and some little grammatical things
This is what I've finally settled on. I had to cut Vedalken Shackles because it's a little more than I'm willing to spend, I'd like to keep the cost of each card to a maximum of $10.
But I think this will work out,Synod Sanctum, Nevinyrral's Disck, Academy Ruins, 10 counters and Isochron Scepter should give me an absolutely aggravating amount of board control, and, hopefully, with that many counters+1 or 2(maybe) exiled on to an Isochron, that should allow me to protect Morphling forever if I'm playing against black or white.
Edit: Though i am worried about some things, I tend to go kid-in-a-candy-shop when making a deck, and get all excited about so many awesome options that i feel I'm often unfocused. I'd definitely love some input of maybe things I should cut/increase the numbers of, or, well, anything,
I have a feeling that Synod Sanctum isn't that great at the moment; it can only exile stuff you control, and by the time you board wipe, there's not a lot you can save. I think you can definitely cut it for something that would let you control the board better, such as another counter or an oblivion stone, which could allow you to save some permanents and blow everything else up.
I also think that you don't have quite enough 2cmc cards to imprint on Isochron.
A good idea would be to add muddle the mixture- a good counter and it could search up an isochron scepter.
As much as I hate to say it Sorin's Vengeance is better than corrupt.
.
I'm debating between Sorin's Vengeance and something like consume spirit. Consume spirit isn't as cost effective as any of them, but it's really really satisfying to get Liliana off and just consume for a very large amount of life.
I'd still add in a 4th Mutilate, probably over a Verdict. Sweepers really swing the game into your favor if you're having trouble staying ahead of creature decks.
I took the last mutilate in my LGS... so I doubt that I'm going to get it anytime soon. I'm still doing fairly well against creature based decks since my deck is packed with removal. Speaking of which, I need a way to deal with enchantment/artifacts, as that will probably help me in the control match-up.
Honestly I really like Abyssal. It's an Innocent blood if they attack you.
Took out the artifact shenanigans, gonna make another deck with them.
-4 Ichor
-3 Mycosynth
-3 Core
+3 Swamps
7 extra slots
I'm looking for things that I can find in the dollar jank box for tomorrow, since i'm going away for a bit after that.
After that I'll probably go for
-1 Swamp
+1 Cabal Coffers
+3 Pain's Reward
+4 Hymn to tourach
I don't really like peppersmoke to be honest, it seems like it could be a better spot for either spot removal or draw. I'll agree with Etched Chester with the Cloud of Fairies, it makes for an extra faerie for Spellstutter Sprite.
For reference, I play MBC, Merfolk, Zoo and Slivers, if that helps.
(Not sure where to ask, thought Casual would be the place to be)
Okay doing some quick math here; adding an extra island would give you a 75% chance of drawing more than two islands in the first draw, while keeping it at 19 islands would keep it at 72%. Keep this in mind this is in the first draw. Personally you don't need more than two islands in your first draw (because of aether vial and your good amount of other free goodies). You will have a 94+% chance of drawing an island no matter what though, so that is okay.
However, I don't feel that it would be comfortable playing on two lands with this deck, in case you need to daze or cast things like propaganda. By the third turn, there's a good 5% chance that you won't draw three islands. What this means is that propaganda would become a pretty late draw. Also, using the same math, aether vial is at 39% in the first drop, which is pretty important since you need it to cast things without mana.
All in all, 20-22 lands should be more worth, since being able to cast things is always nice. They give you a nice back-up, and raise the probability of drawing islands by a good 10-15%, meaning you won't get mana screwed.
(This is all done with hypergeometric distribution, assuming a deck size of 60 and draws of 7, 8, 9, testing both 19, 20 and 22 lands.)
Devout Invocation puts out an army of 4/4 flyers. Running Lord of Atlantis will give you as big of an army with fish. While they don't have evasion, if you have enough fish to tap out for DI, you should have enough fish to kill the other guy with really, really big fish.
White gives you tokens, convoke, other things like that.
Black gives you sac outlets and possibly graveyard shenanigans through Thelon and others.
Blue gives you tempo, Paradox haze and draw.
Black is probably the strongest splash if you opt to run attrition
To be honest, the blue splash requires a bit more than paradox haze to justify. Go four of them so you can put in some tempo to get you to late game. It's going to take a hella long time for you to consistently chuck out tokens, so you're going to want to put in something like Into the Roil, Temporal spring or Remand.
Scatter the seeds is alright, but sprout swarm is just better and recurrable. Just get rid of it, you need the spaces for more things.
Utopia mycon is strictly better than thallid.
Tribal forcemage is kinda meh/overkill. If you wanted to win fast you wouldn't be playing thallids in the first place.
Black for Thelon is okay... but you could just run Thelonite hermit and not splash black at all.
White really helps you in terms of consistency in removal and token generation late game, and that really helps you win match-ups where you can't win straight out.
I've ran merfolk with an average cmc of 2 and you still need two or three lands at least to run; with 18 lands it's a lot less consistent and i still get mana screwed with around 24 lands.
I'll edit this post later after reading the thread a bit more because I forgot what I posted, but that's basically the reason why Uw/Ux merfolk is better than mono-blue millfolk
EDIT:
I think I wasn't clear about what I was saying; I've found merfolk with a splash of mill to not be as good or win as consistently as either straight millfolk or straight aggrofolk. The reason is that Drowner of Secrets is a three-drop with 1 power that forces you to tap all your merfolk down; it won't win as fast and you won't be able to snowball like you would with aggrofolk. However, if you do go millfolk, Judge of Currents will mitigate a lot of damage over time; if you do some math and calculate how much you would gain a turn, you might gain over 20 life in one game.
However, silvergill adept is always the best card, so i would advise you replace reef shaman or aquitect's with it. 3-4 Islandwalk enablers are good enough.
EDIT:
I just looked at your list a bit more; it seems like you need to either focus on milling or damage. Also, just 18 islands isn't good enough. If you're going to do millfolk, i think it would be a good idea to splash white for judge of currents, summon the school and oblivion ring.
Wake thrasher doesn't go very well with merrow commerce as well, btw.
Basically, hymn is better than distress.
Yeah, it definitely works but is more of a tempo card and more for running in a wizard-ish merfolk deck, probably somewhat like millfolk and such. Aggro merfolk won't really have a place for it.
In other news
3 Drowner of secrets
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Judge of Currents
2 Merrow Harbinger
3 Merrow Reejerey
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Stonybrook Banneret
2 Merrow Commerce
4 Summon the school
12 Islands
12 Plains
This is what I'm running currently. It's meant for mostly multiplayer but probably functions around the same in 1v1. I'm having trouble with consistancy here but I don't really see the problem (I lost my fourth reejerey :/), mainly $$. Any comments?
ALSO: I updated the opening post to include master of the pearl trident and some little grammatical things
I have a feeling that Synod Sanctum isn't that great at the moment; it can only exile stuff you control, and by the time you board wipe, there's not a lot you can save. I think you can definitely cut it for something that would let you control the board better, such as another counter or an oblivion stone, which could allow you to save some permanents and blow everything else up.
I also think that you don't have quite enough 2cmc cards to imprint on Isochron.
A good idea would be to add muddle the mixture- a good counter and it could search up an isochron scepter.
I'm debating between Sorin's Vengeance and something like consume spirit. Consume spirit isn't as cost effective as any of them, but it's really really satisfying to get Liliana off and just consume for a very large amount of life.
I took the last mutilate in my LGS... so I doubt that I'm going to get it anytime soon. I'm still doing fairly well against creature based decks since my deck is packed with removal. Speaking of which, I need a way to deal with enchantment/artifacts, as that will probably help me in the control match-up.
4 Corrupt
2 Exsanguinate
1 Liliana of the Dark Realm
Draw/CA: 6
4 Sign in Blood
2 Promise of Power
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Geth's Verdict
3 Mutilate
3 Innocent Blood
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
Lands: 25
2 Cabal Coffers
23 Swamps
How does this look?
Took out the artifact shenanigans, gonna make another deck with them.
-4 Ichor
-3 Mycosynth
-3 Core
+3 Swamps
7 extra slots
I'm looking for things that I can find in the dollar jank box for tomorrow, since i'm going away for a bit after that.
After that I'll probably go for
-1 Swamp
+1 Cabal Coffers
+3 Pain's Reward
+4 Hymn to tourach