i like back to basics still as it can hamper their game plan enough to be worth it since there are so many other juicy abrupt decay targets. also really like relic here just to get some value out of an early play since i side out Vials and Harbingers and usually 1 Copter. My plan is to try and aggro them out while holding up counterspells for Toxic Deluge and backbreaking edict effects.
-2 Harbinger, -1 Copter, -4 Vial +2 Relic, +2 Fluster, +2 Back to Basics, +1 Dismember. I still like cursecatcher a good deal since it can counter heavy sorceries like Hymn and Deluge.
Also, I do not side out any of my 3 Images since it always has a good target here be it Leovold, Strix, islandwalking lord, Adept (actually amazing) or TNN.
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Feb 4, 20182
lord_darkview posted a message on [Deck]MerfolkYou asked a question. I gave an answer. I'm not claiming to be an oracle, but I'm not going to waste my time with what looks like a pointlessly bad idea.Posted in: Aggro & Tempo
If you're so confident, then why don't you do it and go prove my assessments wrong?
I await your impressive tournament reports with bated breath. I won't be responding to anything else you write until then, because it's frankly not worth it: all you have is venom for anyone who disagrees with your suggestions, and that doesn't exactly engender a constructive dialogue. -
Feb 4, 2018
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lord_darkview posted a message on [Deck]MerfolkLegacy is a different ballgame. Merfolk has access to Force of Will, which serves as a catch-all answer to Natural State and similar additions. One point of power isn't as relevant in Legacy, which diminishes the worth of Speaker. Additionally, the blue Lords are even better relatively, due to Islands being so prolific (well over 2/3 the format).Posted in: Aggro & Tempo
Image and Harbinger are much stronger in Legacy because the threats are much more powerful and easier to cheat in. Also, Image has TNN or other resilient targets.
The amount of nonbasic hate in Legacy is also much higher. We can even bring some of it to the table. This further discourages splashing.
Tropical Fish has a much higher hill to climb in Legacy, because the card quality is a lot higher. It doesn't mean it can't be done, but I'm not confident enough to spend time running the experiment.
You are, of course, welcome to do so. -
Jan 29, 20181
FANAttIC posted a message on [Deck]MerfolkWhich part of my answer was "angry"?Posted in: Aggro & Tempo
Single cards often single handedly change Legacy: Deathrite Shaman, Leovold, Griselbrand, Abrupt Decay, Walking Ballista and so on.
For us, it was True-Name Nemesis and Copter, and to a lesser extent Harbinger of the Tides, Spyglass and Ceremonious Rejection.
If unblockability was something we wanted than Spreading Seas would be a 4-of in the deck. -
May 9, 2017
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FANAttIC posted a message on [Deck]MerfolkFinally able to play some Legacy:Posted in: Aggro & Tempo
https://www.reddit.com/r/FishMTG/comments/69znj0/smuggling_fish_at_gp_bologna/?st=j2hb7l09&sh=1346f2c0 -
Apr 13, 2017
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FANAttIC posted a message on [Deck]MerfolkVial is extremely important for Modern because everyone is playing Opal, Ape, Tron, Scapeshift, Bloom and other accelerators, we need to keep up and have a chance to deploy Waves on time.Posted in: Aggro & Tempo
In Legacy, we have superfast decks in check with Chalice and Force (plus Fluster, Daze, Pierce, whatever else). That means we have some time, so Vial is not a matter of life and death. Also, we are playing FoW and we need more blue stuff to pitch, so it is possible (at some point) Vial would not have anything to deploy (similar to discard matchups, lack of gas means Vial lose some flair).
Yes, now there are 10 1-drops and they "feel" good with Copters, I just wish to have more Legacy players around me to test properly (no MODO for me). -
Oct 30, 2016
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Kamikaze360 posted a message on [Deck]MerfolkWARNING: extremely long postPosted in: Aggro & Tempo
This is the build I went 5-4 with at the recent Legacy Champs. 3 of the games I lost were super close and could have gone either way with a little more luck and a little tighter play by me. Here is the list:
R1 (Elves): win 2-1
G1 he had the natural Craterhoof ftw. G2 had the turn 2 Chalice and he couldn’t do much after that. G3 he had a slow draw and I had 2 Dismember for his Symbiotes which combined with a lot of pressure for the win.
R2 (Grixis Delver): lose 0-2
G1: close game down to the wire but his DRS helped him close it out faster. G2 I start off with Cursecatcher and he counters with a Deathrite Shaman. I then choose to play the Lord of Atlantis instead of Dismembering his creature. On his turn he plays both Young Pyro and Delver. On my 3rd turn I draw TNN and decide to play it to race instead of using Dismember and potentially losing 4 life and having it countered. On his upkeep he revealed Force of Will for the Delver flips and he proceeded to win the race from there. This game (along with my later loss to Grixis Delver made me really question Dismember in this matchup.)
R3 (D & T): win 2-1
G1: He wins when I keep a Vial-heavy land-light hand and he casts 2 Flickerwisps in a row to reset my Vials. G2 I mull to 4 and keep a no-lander. I scry and keep a Mutavault on top. I then proceed to draw and play 3 consecutive Lords and a Tidal Warrior while he is durdling around with Vials and Recruiter search (for Stoneforge). Tidal Warrior was insane this game giving my whole team islandwalk and coming along for the attack that same turn (thanks Reej). G3 was him searching and equipping with me casting 2x Dismember to steal massive amounts of tempo and beat him down with a team.
R4 (Aluren): win 2-0
G1 opponent was landscrewed (kept a 1-lander with Brainstorm). G2 he flooded but his little troupe of creatures were just islandwalked over.
R5 (Belcher): lose 1-2
G1 I mull to 5 and am on the draw. He casts 14 Goblins from Empty t1. G2 I put Chalice on 0 turn 1 and I have a key Flusterstorm. Also, Tidal Warrior kept him off his colored mana for 3 turns in a row while my Mutavault plus Lord put the game away. G3 I mull again… to 5. He doesn’t go off turn 1 and I plop down a Chalice for 0. I have very modest pressure this game and am constantly holding up Flusterstorm. He flashes Ancient Grudge on my Chalice and I cast Flusterstorm. He exiles 2 Guides to pay the cost. 2 turns later he draws enough to make 14 Goblins. I have Lord, Reej, and Mutavault which I swing into his team and he blocks with 7 dudes. My plan at this point is to either draw enough consecutive blockers to keep me alive or draw Echoing Truth. I decide to play Chalice on 1 to counter his Pyroblast should I draw Truth. That decision did me in as I instead drew a Cursecatcher which would have combined with my 2 Lords to keep me at 1 life. I died instead with my Echoing Truth on top of my library (never look after a loss to an excellent matchup).
R6 (Miracles): win 2-0
Not much going on here. G1 my Vial + Caverns start blanked his hand of Counterbalance and Counterspells. G2 I had 3 Silvergills which kept my hand full of gas and enabled me to cast double Force of Will on a key Terminus.
R7 (OmniShow): lose 1-2
G1 got blown out by Omniscience into Cunning Wish into Intuition into Emrakul. G2 I won with tons of early pressure and a key Echoing Truth on Omniscience which slowed him down enough for me to get him on the crack back. G3 he got the natural combo off turn 3 with 1 Brainstorm and 1 Ponder into Show and Tell, Omni, Emrakul. Chalice is really bad otd here and my list had few other interactions.
R8 (Sneak and Show): win 2-0
G1 I win when he Sneak attacks 2 different Griselbrands and I just beat him down with a massive army not enabling him to draw off of it. G2 He resolves a Griselbrand through a Show and Tell which I promptly copy at eot with Phantasmal Image off of Vial, draw 7 cards, and win from there.
R9 (Grixis Delver): lose 1-2
G1 was super tight as he durdled around looking for creatures while I kept drawing Cursecatchers. He bolted 2 Lords and 1 Adept. I made a massive misplay when he flashed Therapy back and I should have countered with Cursecatcher but was so tired I didn’t see it and he stripped my Image which could have copied his Gurmag Angler and stabilized me for a while. As it was I still had about 5 consecutive turns to draw a Lord to islandwalk him ftw and never saw it. G2 I smashed him with TNN, Lords, and Chalice. G3 I kept a horrible hand and lost to a blazing start.
R10 dropped since 6-4 wouldn’t have prized but 7-3 might have.
Thoughts:
Daze was only truly awesome once all day—when it countered a Defense Grid against Show and Tell. Otherwise, it was very bad. Most decks are casting very low cmc-spells and even the combo decks like Show and Tell use Ancient Tomb and Petal to get around Daze.
Tidal Warrior was better than I thought, fixing my mana once, enabling a sick Alpha strike, and keeping an opponent off of mana.
Merfolk Reejerey was mediocre. I liked it in the D & T match since it helped me make large alpha strikes. Otherwise it was slow, clunky, and automatically Bolted.
Dismember is insane against D & T (only if they don’t draw Mom).
Chalice of the Void is insane on the play and… Not nearly as good on the draw. Sometimes I didn’t even cast it turn 2 since the opponent had already developed the board so much. I may start boarding this out otd against Delver decks and just try and counter (they board out some counters) and remove their threats as I race them.
Vendilion Clique off the board was really good when I saw it, helping me steal a couple of key cards and fly over.
Echoing Truth may need to be a 2-of since it has so many awesome and unexpected applications.
I may move 3 Tidal Warriors to the main, add 2 Mishra's Factory, and replace Daze with Warping Wail. Merfolk is definitely not the most powerful but opponents usually are not prepared for it and it still attacks at odd enough angles to be successful. I was in every match and could easily have been 7-2 or 8-1. -
May 6, 20162
Curby posted a message on [Deck]MerfolkI love sideboarding guides. I don't get a chance to play too often, which means my skills suck. I know a printed guide is a crutch, but it's one I'm happy to use if it means I can spend my meager brainpower on in-game decisions instead of sideboarding poorly.Posted in: Aggro & Tempo
But ...
Guides are most useful when there's an established baseline list. AFAIK people still disagree on Chalice, Harbinger of the Tides, maindeck equipment, etc., not to mention sideboard cards. Different maindecks play differently enough that sideboarding strategies will differ, and you can't board in cards that you don't run.
In this situation, the best we could do is list the staples that are most useful and least useful in a given matchup. If e.g. Jitte is effectively dead against Storm but Flusterstorm is great, we say so and those running Jittes would take them out, and those running Flusterstorms would put them in. We can never make a pure 1-for-1 exchange guide because everyone's list is different, but we can list candidates for taking out and putting in. (I'd even argue that this is a more productive strategy for a community of pilots, because lists keep changing but general matchup strategies should stay roughly constant.) -
Dec 28, 2015
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I disagree.Posted in: Aggro & Tempo
Heritage Druid, Signal Pest, Etched Champion and Delver of Secrets killed more Merfolk players than Goyf or Tasigur.
That removal has potential. -
Dec 26, 2015
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Redmund5000 posted a message on Wizards Suspends 5 L3, 8 L2 and 1 L1 Judge from the SoutheastI am disappointed by the lack of critical thinking being displayed around this topic. While the people who received suspensions were mtg judges, their suspensions were received because of their actions. While these recent events may have a negative short term impact on the SE US Magic community, that isn't the fault of WoTC, its the fault of the pillars of that community for using poor judgement and engaging in nefarious activity. They are the ones that let their community down. If this was going on for several sets then they had to have known that the information about upcoming cards they were receiving was in fact real since they would be validated by the actual cards as they were released.Posted in: Magic General
People talk about a whistleblower, which I'm pretty sure is just hearsay since the leaks happened, if the whistle was blown we can presume that WoTC would have been able to stop them from reaching the wider public. I'm pretty sure that when people refer to the "whistleblower" the are referring to Robert of the MTG Focus podcast, who in the most recent episode discusses his version of events and interviews Helene Bergeot. We learn that Robert tweeted the images of Kozilek and the wastes, I'm not clear as to whether he was a member of the private Facebook group or someone from the group sent him the images. Robert claims that he thought they were fake. A short time after the leaked images began to spread, Robert received a call from WoTC when he began cooperating with the investigation from his own admission to make the outcome better for him. WoTC does have the right to protects its work,
I think that WoTC's stance is clear and reasonable, they are just asking people to stop and think before they act. The definition of public and private is pretty clear in regards to internet and doesnt need to be defined specially by Wizards. A public forum is one like this, where anyone can read it or join and make posts, you can use an internet search engine and find results that lead to posts on this forum. A private forum is one the is not searchable by the public, you need an invitation or to apply to be a member of before you can access it. Luckily searching the internet is easy and documentable, if you are a member of a private forum and you see a leaked card which may or may not be real, all you have to do is a simple internet search using your favorite search engine if nothing comes up then you know the leaked information hasn't reached the wider public, you can then either keep quiet and risk punitive action or send WoTC an email saying hey I came across this in a private forum, thought you should know. I can't imagine the process taking more than 5 minutes. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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Mistcaller is a trap card. It's too low impact for a sideboard card, particularly when compared directly with Grafdigger's Cage. It also doesn't solve any of the issues the deck faces.
* It's effective against Reanimator, but that matchup is already excellent, probably even too excellent.
* It's bad against Sneak&Show. If they're casting Show into it, they're jamming omniscience and you're still dead. If they're activating sneak, they can just activate sneak against in response to the sac.
* It's bad against DnT. Sac to stuff a single vial activation is not a good trade, generally.
* It doesn't do enough against Elves. Yeah, it counters an NO or a GSZ, but that doesn't go that far. They'll gladly trade a non-committal GSZ for it to set up murdering you with an NO, and it doesn't help at all with getting buried by symbiote+visionary.
Overall, the best secondary one-drop is still Tidal Warrior, as that ability can actually turn the problematic nonblue matchups around in a big way. Even against the blue decks where it's not so good, it still has utility denying certain colors (like R for pyroblast) and can colorfix us in a pinch.
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Copter is sooooo good. Winning the matchup lottery doesn't hurt either.
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I'm liking the 2x Chart. 4x was too many and was clogging my early game with too much durdle.
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lazygenius22: Your mana is very fragile. With only 9 basic islands, you now have to care about wasteland and especially blood moon.. as well as *your own* back to basics. I personally consider 11 the bare minimum. Oboro is really cool in modern, but in legacy it's too much of a liability.
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I'm still playing 11 basic islands like I have for a long time now, the mana is still overall quite resilient to wasteland and blood moon, but wasteland does matter a tad bit more now. The biggest issue is that we'd never willingly play a nonbasic as our first land drop because of wasteland, but as Joe Lossett describes, even in that situation the end result is that both us and our opponent is down a card, but we're on the play instead of them, which is still a pretty good situation for us as long as we've still got enough land in hand to function. It's only a really big problem if we're very land light and only have one other land in hand. The power of being on the play is likely worth that risk, though.
Tidal Warrior: It's always been somewhat a meta call for nonblue decks that happens to be just useful enough in blue matchups and from a curve perspective to be worth maindecking, but this top-less meta has gotten way way more blue now, so the power of Tidal has gone down significantly. Copter has replaced those slots by both being overall more powerful and by having less polarized utility. That is, copter is not quite as good as Tidal vs. nonblue, but it's much much much better than Tidal vs. blue. I did try Tidal a bit in the top-less meta myself however most of my current feel for the meta and how effective Tidal is currently comes from being in Ehhh's peanut gallery all last week.
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Yeah, I don't think having Tidal or not really effects whether 2 or 3 copter are better. We have just so many dudes that crewing it isn't usually much of a problem.
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This is a sign you haven't played with Phantasmal Image enough. It is the card with by far the highest ceiling, and the floor is not nearly as low as you believe it is. I *rarely* get stuck with Phantasmal uselessly in my hand. You often need to think a little sideways to really exploit the true power of the card.
This sounds like you play with bad opponents that don't know how to play around Daze, that would be the most reasonable explanation for why you feel that Daze is never a dead card. Daze is especially bad in the current meta with so many Deathrite Shamans running around. Island-GO with daze is a miserable opening, as when you actually use that Daze you pretty much straight up timewalk yourself. You will more than likely lose that game due to the tempo loss. The right number of Daze you should run is just barely enough to make your opponent start respecting it. Why? let's consider the 4 main situations w.r.t. Daze:
1. Opponent does not play around Daze, you don't have Daze => +0 (Neutral)
2. Opponent does not play around Daze, you have the Daze => +3 (Major advantage)
3. Opponent plays around Daze, you don't have Daze => +1 (Minor advantage)
4. Opponent plays around Daze, you have the Daze => -2 (Moderate disadvantage)
The goal is to maximize situations 2 and 3 and minimize situation 4. The way to do that is to create uncertainty in the opponent whether or not they should play around Daze or not. Playing all 4 daze is a double-whammy in this regard. By doing so, you make it optimal for the opponent to always play around the Daze and you'll draw Daze more often, which maximizes situation 4 two different ways. Playing no dazes makes it optimal for the opponent to never play around Daze, which while not actively bad for us isn't an optimal strategy. Playing 1-2 dazes is enough to make the opponent have to respect Daze, but not too much. By forcing the opponent to make a decision every turn (rather than just once at the beginning of the match) whether to play around Daze or not, you create the most openings for situations 2 and 3.