Standard is a dynamic and fascinating format, mostly because no two are the same, and sometimes even just one format is barely recognizable from one week to the next. Never has that been more true than with our current standard, featuring the highly publicized and much beloved Return to Return to Ravnica (a.k.a. Guilds of Ravnica.) set. The meta seems to be wildly shifting day after day as the collective Magic hive mind tries to find out what archetypes have staying power and what those decks’ stock lists should look like. So, while normally this would be around the time I would write up a breakdown of what are the best decks in Standard right now, I genuinely don’t think that is possible as of this moment. Until we get a little more data from high level events, there is no real meta and with no meta there is no way to “attack the meta”. It’s all very confusing and circular, but that’s not to say there aren’t some things we know for sure about Standard, and that’s what I am going to be covering today. Through the testing done by myself and the rest of the Guildpact Gaming team as well as data gathered from pros and the many high level events over the last two weeks, I am confident saying that these things are undisputable facts regarding the standard format that will preoccupy the next few months.
#1) Experimental Frenzy is really, really good
So, if you haven’t yet, I strongly recommend playing an experimental frenzy deck as soon as you are able to. It almost doesn’t matter the rest of the list or the format, so long as it’s one where you are able to cast Experimental Frenzy. It’s not just that it’s outrageously powerful – allowing you to extend your turn and your deck’s reach for as long as you have mana and available land drops to play things off the top of your deck, essentially turning every deck into a wannabe Storm deck - it’s also outrageously fun. Once you start finding the ways to really abuse Frenzy (Wayward Swordtooth, Treasure Map, and Wand of Vertebrae are all good places to start) it becomes apparent to anyone watching that this card is going to be a player in standard (and potentially older formats) for as long as it is legal for. I personally have played several Experimental Frenzy brews ranging from mono-red to three color, and while I don’t think any version I have played or seen is “THE” list, I do believe it is only a matter of time before the correct combination of cards are found, and when that happens prepare for Frenzy to take over the format. In the meantime, you basically can’t go wrong jamming frenzy in almost any aggressively-oriented deck at this point, as the ability to essentially “refill your hand” in the late game against midrange or control is just invaluable and makes otherwise mediocre decks extraordinary.
#2) Golgari.dec is the safe choice
There’s about a thousand decklists running around online right now, half of them with decent finishes either on MTGO or in a paper event of one sort or another. Week after week, there is almost no consistency in what is the best thing to be doing, and the data is even more corrupted once you start playing lists and you get to see the flaws behind a deck that dominated last weekend or last event. One thing that remains consistent in results, testing, and theory is that Golgari decks are just a really solid choice for standard right now. In a format that is shifting from hyper aggro (mono-red week one) to tempo and control (UR Drakes and Jeskai/Esper Control Week 2) one of the best things you can be doing is just shoving a ton of removal, disruption, and resilient threats all in one deck, and that’s exactly what every Golgari deck aims to do. I don’t think any of the Golgari midrange lists stand out as particularly excellent, and there’s anywhere from a 2-20 card difference between lists depending on how they choose to approach the late-game, but the core principles are always the same: disrupt your opponent by killing their stuff and attacking their hand, then beat them down and keep bringing your dudes back from the graveyard until your opponent is dead. If you’re floundering in indecisiveness about what to play, and don’t want to spend money on a deck that will disappear by the time you sleeve it up, Golgari is what I would recommend. The deck has a ton of redundancy and the strategy has so many options that it should be able to continue adapting to the meta as it moves forward.
#3) Burn is back baby!
I don’t think most people realize how much burn is going on in standard right now, because honestly, it’s a fascinating trend. It’s not that there’s a dedicated burn deck showing up or standing out, but more that so many games of standard are being ended by burn. With Shock, Lighining Strike, Fight with Fire (kicked, of course), Banefire, and – the newest addition – Expansion//Explosion all being highly played, maindeck cards combined with a grindy format, often times, decks that are planning to win one way are instead just casting a banefire for 15 to the opponent’s face, or comboing Shocks and Lightning Strikes off the top with Experimental Frenzy (remember that first point?) when the original plan was to beat down with fatties. It presents an interesting dilemma to the average player, as now they need to keep track of their opponent’s mana lest they die to uncounterable fire whilst they are at - what would normally be – a safe life total. I don’t know for certain how this will change how the format plays moving forward, but I do know that if you’re playing red and you aren’t running some combination of the cards above, you’re cheating yourself out of a nice backup plan for late-game.
#4) The Best Cards are… Unplayable?
Specifically: Nullhide Ferox and Doom Whisperer. What happened? These are two undercosted threats, one of which has hexproof and a “Wilt-leaf Liege” Clause, the other has evasion… make that double evasion… and is a mini-Griselbrand… kinda. So how is it these two cards went from maximum hype to slowly getting cut out of their respective decks? It’s an interesting question, the answer to which is unique to each card. For Nullhide Ferox, being a 6/6 is useless without trample in a format where tokens and decks that recycle creatures (see point #2) are everywhere, and it turns out that “no non-creature spells” clause is more harmful that it seemed at first glance, as Vraska(s) and Vivian Reid are cards you really want access to. In the case of Doom Whisperer, being an undercosted 6/6 flying trampler becomes less relevant when the format is so grindy and slow. On top of that, Doom Whisperer wants you to aggressively surveil using it’s pay 2 life ability, but with Banefire, Fight with Fire, and miscellaneous burn spells everywhere (see #3) you might just end up giving your opponent the easy win. Now, the headline was a bit misleading, because these cards aren’t actually unplayable, they just seem so much worse right now than their objective value in a vacuum would lead you to believe. Doom Whisperer still makes Lyra look like a joke, and Ferox is basically unbeatable for any deck playing Disinformation Campaign. But when these cards aren’t amazing, they are painfully mediocre, something that would have been hard to imagine when we saw their spoilers just a few weeks ago.
Standard is going to keep changing, and one of the worst things you can do is glue yourself to a particular archetype or deck when it hasn’t solidified itself yet as a concrete part of the meta going forward. What you can do, however, is try to learn what fundamental truths about the format exist so you can apply those to your deck building moving forward.
Winning PTQ and MKM Series tournaments with 200 and 100 players is ok in my book. These are not Fnm level. Not random top8 with split, pure win.
DS from Germany is also consistent even if his tournaments are 50-60 players range. Do we have active players with better results?
Rietzl is not wasting his breath on Merfolk.
There is small number of Merfolk players who keep on crushing and I like hearing their thoughts. I can embrace or dismiss their advice by myself.
So, I've been working non-stop and haven't had time to post about it, but I went 8-2 at the regionals in Baltimore. I basically ran Nikachu's list except I replaced one harbinger with a vapor snag (couldn't find my fourth harbinger at the last second) and I managed to work 3 chalice into the sideboard. My two losses were to Tron (didn't see a single spreading sea's in 3 games) and to a homebrew R/W deck running stuff like resto-kiki and hero of bladehold (got land screwed one game, land flooded the next and he had two great hands)
These were my matches though:
rd1: Anafenza Company 2-0
rd 2: Junk 2-0
rd 3: Kiki-Company 2-0
rd 4: RW homebrew 0-2
rd 5: Junk 2-1
rd 6: Tron 1-2
rd 7: Mardu Land destruction (homebrew) 2-0
rd 8: Boggles 2-1 (dude miscounted dmg game 1 and scooped even though I was 2 damage short of lethal, gm 3 chalice on 1 sealed it.)
rd 9: Mirror 2-0
rd 10: Jeskai ascendancy: 2-1 (turns out he can't beat chalice on 1 both games.)
Going to FNM tonight with a list based off that guy who posted about six sea's effects a few pages back (sorry, I can't seem to find the post now but if this was you go ahead and take credit) This will be my first time with no Reejerey's so we'll see how this goes.
Debating on swapping out the Chalices for 2 more counters (either dispel or pierce) and 1 of something else (maybe a fourth harbinger or a third snag) I'm playing at a new store tonight so I suppose I'll just have to see what the meta is like.
Thing is that tec edge and chalice are good against different decks (the only overlapping one is RG Tron) and the decks that tec edge is good against I tend to see a lot more of (Jund and RG Tron mostly, but also Junk/Abzan and Grixis Twin/control.) But infect is a really hard matchup and chalice turns it around hardcore. UGH I just can't decide. I'll roll with the tec edges for this tournament and post a report afterwards.
Nikachu, thanks for taking us through your sideboard decision process. I enjoyed playing against you on day 2 of GP Copenhagen and discussing some Legacy Merfolk (although I got crushed by Merfolk while playing Naya Company). Due to the growing popularity of GR Tron I am thinking of switching again to Merfolk. A few questions regarding your sideboard plan:
What is your reasoning behind not boarding Negates against the Twin match ups? As far as I remember these match ups can end in counter wars.
What is the reasoning behind the Tectonic Edges against Martyr Proc? Just to better curve or to actually as a mana denial plan (which seems hard given the number of basics they play).
Why the Dismember against Eldrazi processors? As far as I know all the targets are larger than 5 toughness.
In the Dutch meta there is still some Affinity (2/3 on average 40 players for the casual tournaments). Even with Harbingers and Dismembers this matchup will be hard. What would be the first 2 cards you would cut from the sideboard for 2 Recall? 2 Tectonic Edges seems the easiest way, but that would reduce the consistency of mana denial. Other option I see are the Tidebinder mages as we already have 4 dismember.
To conclude at first I was a bit surprised by the lack of Unified Will in the sideboard. But after analyzing the match ups where you need Negate, Negate is a better hard counter than Unified Will (e.g. hard to Unified Will after a board wipe).
Affinity is also really popular where I'm at (Baltimore, MD, USA area). I'm going to a pretty major tournament on Sunday and I think this is the list I'm going to bring:
So this is the list I'm bringing to a pretty major tournament this sunday (local shop, first prize is your choice of a Xbox One or Ps4 and one game of your choice for that system!) Anyway, I'm not totally sold on the side yet but I don't know how I should change it if at all. Thoughts?
What do you need the Echoing Truth for that Recall doesn't already hit? I would expect it is for Ensnaring Bridge mostly, I also agree with you that the Baltimore area is very high affinity for whatever reason I would also highly suggest you up to 10 islands, cut either a cavern or a wanderwine (preferably a cavern). I have tried the 9 islands thing and it always messes me up, just 1 island can make a difference espeically when playing with main deck Kira. You can't count on having vial everytime you see Kira. So yeah, other than those two things it looks fine...I'm personally not a fan of P. Image or Tec Edge but if you want to run them go ahead. I just see the Echoing Truth as a little redundant.
I was thinking about running truth in place of the third recall because it also helps in the twin matchup (can hit twin or exarch/pestermite), Since I'm only running 3 dismember it can serve as a 4th removal or as a pseudo recall vs. affinity (obviously far short of the real deal, but more broad in general against the rest of the meta.) I actually went back up to 2 caverns because there is a LOT of Grixis control, grixis twin, and u/r twin in my local meta and I got sick of getting remanded to death any time I didn't hit vial or my one cavern. Honestly I haven't had too much of a problem with color fixing. There have been a couple times I got stuck with an uncastable kira in hand, but I think I'm willing to trade that for the games where I get countered into oblivion. I know everyone has moved away from P Image, and admittedly it is often one of the cards that comes out when sideboarding, but it is so freaking good in the main deck as it's basically 2 more lords 90% of the time, and the rest of the time it's a 2 drop MoW or Harbinger of the tides 4-5. I really miss having Chalice in the side, as I found it just auto-wins some matchups (infect, bogles, affinity, delver, burn, etc.) and it really throws off people who don't expect it, but I don't know where to fit it in the 75.
Nikachu, thanks for taking us through your sideboard decision process. I enjoyed playing against you on day 2 of GP Copenhagen and discussing some Legacy Merfolk (although I got crushed by Merfolk while playing Naya Company). Due to the growing popularity of GR Tron I am thinking of switching again to Merfolk. A few questions regarding your sideboard plan:
What is your reasoning behind not boarding Negates against the Twin match ups? As far as I remember these match ups can end in counter wars.
What is the reasoning behind the Tectonic Edges against Martyr Proc? Just to better curve or to actually as a mana denial plan (which seems hard given the number of basics they play).
Why the Dismember against Eldrazi processors? As far as I know all the targets are larger than 5 toughness.
In the Dutch meta there is still some Affinity (2/3 on average 40 players for the casual tournaments). Even with Harbingers and Dismembers this matchup will be hard. What would be the first 2 cards you would cut from the sideboard for 2 Recall? 2 Tectonic Edges seems the easiest way, but that would reduce the consistency of mana denial. Other option I see are the Tidebinder mages as we already have 4 dismember.
To conclude at first I was a bit surprised by the lack of Unified Will in the sideboard. But after analyzing the match ups where you need Negate, Negate is a better hard counter than Unified Will (e.g. hard to Unified Will after a board wipe).
Affinity is also really popular where I'm at (Baltimore, MD, USA area). I'm going to a pretty major tournament on Sunday and I think this is the list I'm going to bring:
So this is the list I'm bringing to a pretty major tournament this sunday (local shop, first prize is your choice of a Xbox One or Ps4 and one game of your choice for that system!) Anyway, I'm not totally sold on the side yet but I don't know how I should change it if at all. Thoughts?
This is for an upcoming video and likely an ongoing series, any comments or errors noticed are greatly appreciated before I turn it into a video. Im habitually asked for my latest build and sideboard guides. Well, here it is.
Modern Merfolk decklist January 2016 (Nikachu)
Maindeck
10 Island
4 Mutavault
2 Wanderwine Hub
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Harbinger of the Tides
3 Merrow Reejerey
2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
4 Master of Waves
Grixis Delver
Play
+2 Dispel
+2 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dismember
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-4 Aether Vial
-4 Spreading Seas
Draw
+2 Dispel
+2 Tidebinder Mage
+2 Dismember
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-4 Cursecatcher
-4 Spreading Seas
Temur Delver
Play
+2 Dispel
+2 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dismember
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Tidebinder Mage
-4 Aether Vial
-4 Spreading Seas
-2 Merrow Reejerey
Draw
+2 Dispel
+2 Dismember
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Tidebinder Mage
-4 Cursecatcher
-4 Spreading Seas
Elves
+2 Dispel
+2 Tidebinder Mage
+2 Dismember
-2 Spell Pierce
-4 Harbinger of the Tides
Soul Sisters
+2 Dismember
+3 Negate
-4 Cursecatcher
-1 Harbinger of the Tides
Martyr Control
+3 Negate
+4 Tectonic Edge
-4 Harbinger of the Tides
-2 Dismember
-1 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
Bogels
+2 Dispel
+3 Negate
+2 Tectonic Edge
-4 Cursecatcher
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
RG Tron
+3 Negate
+4 Tectonic Edge
-2 Dismember
-2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
-2 Harbinger of the Tides
-1 Master of Waves
UW Tron/ Mono U Tron
+1 Dispel
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+3 Negate
+4 Tectonic Edge
-4 Master of Waves
-2 Dismember
-2 Harbinger of the Tides
-2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
Grixis Control
+2 Dispel
+3 Negate
+4 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dismember
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-4 Aether Vial
-3 Merrow Reejerey
-4 Master of the Pearl Trident
-2 Lord of Atlantis
UWR Control
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Dispel
+3 Negate
+4 Tectonic Edge
-4 Aether Vial
-3 Merrow Reejerey
-4 Master of the Pearl Trident
Eldrazi
+3 Negate
+4 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dismember
-4 Aether Vial
-1 Harbinger of the Tides
-4 Cursecatcher
Lantern Control
+3 Negate
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
UR Splinter Twin
+2 Dispel
+2 Dismember
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-4 Spreading Seas
-1 Merrow Reejerey
-1 Master of Waves
Grixis Twin
Play
+2 Dispel
+2 Dismember
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+4 Tectonic Edge
-4 Spreading Seas
-4 Aether Vial
-2 Master of Waves
Draw
+2 Dispel
+2 Dismember
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-4 Spreading Seas
-2 Merrow Reejerey
Amulet Bloom
+3 Negate
+2 Tidebinder Mage
+2 Tectonic Edge
-2 Dismember
-2 Spreading Seas
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
Infect
+2 Dispel
+3 Negate
+2 Tectonic Edge
+2 Tidebinder Mage
+2 Dismember
-4 Master of Waves
-3 Merrow Reejerey
-4 Master of the Pearl Trident
Podless Pod
Play
+2 Dispel
+2 Dismember
+2 Tidebinder Mage
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-2 Spell Pierce
-4 Harbinger of the Tides
-2 Cursecatcher
Draw
+2 Dispel
+2 Dismember
+2 Tidebinder Mage
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-2 Spell Pierce
-2 Harbinger of the Tides
-4 Cursecatcher
Scapeshift
+2 Dispel
+3 Negate
+4 Tectonic Edge
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-2 Dismember
-3 Merrow Reejerey
-4 Spreading Seas
-2 Harbinger of the Tides
Ad Nauseam
+2 Dispel
+3 Negate
+4 Tectonic Edge
-2 Dismember
-4 Spreading Seas
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
Living End
+2 Dispel
+3 Negate
+3 Tectonic Edge
+2 Tidebinder Mage
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
-4 Spreading Seas
-2 Dismember
-4 Harbinger of the Tides
UR Storm
+2 Dispel
+3 Negate
+2 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dismember
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-4 Spreading Seas
-2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
-4 Harbinger of the Tides
-1 Master of Waves
Griselshoal
+2 Dispel
+3 Negate
+2 Tectonic Edge
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Tidebinder Mage
-2 Dismember
-2 Spreading Seas
-4 Master of Waves
-2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
I understand if you don't want to take the time to answer all of these questions since I know you've got a video breakdown (I don't have a way to watch the video at work however)
Do you find you have a problem with land screw running 19 lands with 4 master and 2 Kira?
How often do you find yourself missing Cavern of Souls?
I often find that dismember is more harmful than helpful against affinity because it just speeds up their clock, and their power is transferable from creature to creature (via cranial plating or through ravager). What has your experience been siding them in?
In the matchups where you side in 3 negates, do you find yourself stuck in a lot of situations where you have to choose between a creature/other 2 drop and holding up mana for negate? Does the number of times that happens get outweighed by how negate helps the matchups?
These are some of the issues I've had running similar looking lists.
Now, you may notice I only have 14 cards in the sideboard there. That's because I showed up to the event late and had to register really fast, and in counting my sideboard for some reason I thought I counted 16 cards, so I cut one (there should be a Kira, Great Glass-Spinner). Turns out there were 15 to begin with and I just miscounted, so I played the event a card short in the side. I'm going off of memory for the match report, so it's not super detailed.
Round 1
Affinity
Game one is an auto loss. In my experience, this is pretty much always the case.
Sidebaording:
+ 2 Chalice
+3 Hurkyl's
+2 Dismember
+1 Master of Waves
- 1 Kira
- 4 Cursecatcher
-1 Spreading Seas
-2 Phantasmal Image
So the cuts got tough after the cursecatchers and Kira, but I really wanted the extra dismembers and the master of waves. If I were to do it again I might have swapped one more seas with an image to maintain threat density, but all in all I suppose it doesn't really matter. So game 2 I'm on the play, I drop t1 vial and chalice on 0 with hurkyl's recall sitting in hand. The rest of the game I pretty much just built up board power and let him smash me till I could recall and kill him in 2 turns. Game 3 I got the double reejery set up with 2 lords and a silvergill in hand. Went off the next turn and finished with hurkyl's to win.
match: 2-1
record: 1-0
Round 2
Taking turns (don't know the official name of this deck)
So for those of you who don't know what this deck is (I certainly didn't) it's mono-blue, and basically just runs 4 Dictate of Kruphix and ever extra turn card it can, and just delay with gigadrowse and Cryptic command until they can chain extra turn cards together and either mill you with Jace Beleren or kill you with Thassa, God of the Sea. I'm not going to force you to live through the boringness that was this matchup, but let's just say I got him to 5 or less both games before he went off.
Match: 0-2
record: 1-1
Round 3
Big Zoo (naya beats)
Homebrew deck, pretty much just rolled over this guy. It ran Wild Nacatls, Wooly Thoctars, and Wilt-leaf lieges. Both games islandwalk and dismsmber just rolled him.
sideboarding:
- 2 Spell pierce
- 3 Cursecatcher
+ 2 Dismember
+ 1 Master of Waves
+ 2 Spellskite
the matchup really isn't more interesting than I built up to Master of Waves for 5+ tokens both games and just stomped him.
Match: 2-0
Record: 2-1
Round 4
Slivers
So, this deck is literally just like merfolk but with less interaction (i.e. spell pierces and what not) and not as abusable with vial. game one he started off with the flying sliver and just built up too fast. He finished me of with CoCo (yes he ran CoCo and Vial) into haste sliver and first strike sliver which put the nail in the coffin.
Sideboarding:
- 1 Kira
- 2 Cursecatcher
+ 2 Dismember
+ 1 Master of Waves
Didn't really know what else to sideboard here. I knew he wasn't running removal, his gameplan was very all in. I thought about chalice but I only saw 2 or 3 one drops and figured that probably didn't warrant it over more threats. Game 2 i had the perfect curve from turn 1 vial into lord, lord, master of waves for the win. Game 3 was insane, but I'll speed you up to the crazy finale. he's at 24 and I'm at 4. I've got a couple lords. I play Phantasmal Image as a copy of his lifelink sliver, and swing with mutavault (who is getting the bonus from my two lords plus lifelink now) and a 3/3 cursecatcher to bring him to 17 and me to 8. I did the math, and with the lord I have in hand I have 17 islandwalk damage on board next turn. He plays a couple creatures, one of which is manaweft sliver, and uses his existing slivers to play more slivers. He has one non-sick creature (this will be relevant in a moment.) He also has vial on 4. he passes turn, I untap and play my lord, activate mutavault. So I now have 17 damage on board (2 4/4 lords, a 4/4 cursecatcher, and a 5/5 mutavault) as well as the lord I just played and the 2/2 lifelink sliver that phantasmal image is a copy of. He asks me to wait when I move to combat, and activates vial putting in a sliver (sorry I don't know the names) that has "slivers you control have [T]: tap target creature. So he has one non-sick creature, so he can tap one guy. All he has to do is tap any of the 4 viable attackers I mentioned above and I don't have lethal any longer. Instead, he targets the Image, which I happily sac and swing for the win. He just didn't do the math and didn't realize I had lethal that turn. In fairness, I probably would have one anyway, because by his own admission his next play was CoCo which, after we finished and he was just looking, would have completely whiffed. So, that was an exciting game 3.
Match: 2-1
Record: 3-1
Round 5
Jund
So, here is why I'm not in the top 8. Because Jund is a really good deck. Game one was a typical jund matchup. I made a crucial misplay not countering turn 1 thoughtseize with cursecatcher. My brain just froze and I didn't think of it, which was the beginning of the end of game one, as he took my only lord (I had mulled to a 5 card lord, cursecatcher, 3 land hand.)
Sideboard:
(this is the first match where I really felt not having that second Kira in my sideboard.)
- 4 Vials
- 2 Phantasmal Image
In case this isn't just accepted strategy at this point, I always side out vials versus Jund. I'm not trying to race them, they don't have counterspells, and playing things at instant speed has little benefit short of trying to be tricksy and dodge burn (not to mention, you want to be able to draw basically nothing but gas in this matchup, and the last thing you want to see mid-game when you're trying to apply pressure is a vial topdeck.)
game 2 I dropped a guy here or there and ended up eventually dropping Master of Waves into Master of Waves and that finished him. Game 3 I mulled to 5 and he had the absolute nuts. I think that even if I had kept a 7 card hand I probably wouldn't have beaten his hand. he immediately thoughtseized my spellskite, and then had a turn 2 goyf turn into a 5/6 by turn three that put a clock on me while he had endless removal for my creatures. There was just no winning that.
Match: 1-2
Record: 3-2
Round 6
RUG Delver?
So I actually never saw a delver, but that's the closest thing I can relate this deck to. It ran monastery Swiftspear and snapcaster and burn and probes, but it also had rancor (which was the only green spell I saw). Dismember and islandwalk did work here, as did master of waves.
Sideboarding:
- 4 Spreading Seas
- 2 Phantasmal Image
- 1 cursecatcher
+ 2 Spellskite
+ 2 Spell Pierce
+ 2 Chalice of the Void
+ 1 master of waves
Chalice of the void on 1 pretty much auto-won me game 2.
match: 2-0
record: 4-2
Last Round
Round 7
Affinity
So here was the final match of the night. The guy I was paired up against was pretty cool, we had talked earlier in the day, so he knew I was playing merfolk and I knew he was playing affinity. when I sat down, he kept saying "sorry man. God that sucks" when I asked why, he went on to explain to me how my deck physically cannot beat his deck, how it is just impossible. I told him I won against affinity round one, to which he replied "that guy was probably a bad magic player." That interaction makes the story that follows just SO much sweeter. So, like i said before, game one is an auto loss and this one was no different. But I played it out.
sideboarding:
- 4 Cursecatcher
- 1 Kira
- 2 Spreading Seas
+ 3 Hurkyl's
+ 2 Chalice
+ 2 dismember
holy ***** was this a wild ride. So game 2 was literally identical to game 2 from my round one match. on the play chalice on 0 with hurkyl's back up screwed him. Game three was insane. I mulled to 5 after getting two unkeepable hands (7 was 5 land, 6 was no land) and I kept the following hand on a prayer: Hurkyl's recall, Lord of Atlantis, Master of the Pearl Trident, Silvergill Adept, Island. I decided to keep because I figured that at worst I might draw the second land in a few turns at which point I can recall and hopefully recover. So I did my mulligan scry to reveal another lord on top which I put to the bottom. He had his usual turn one (something along the lines of land vault skirge, mox opal, go.) I topdecked Vial and played it and passed. he dropped a ton of stuff I can't remember and swung for 1 with skirge. I then topdecked a land and praised whatever deity that had chosen to favor me that day and played silvergill adept, which drew me a dismember. Long story short, through a crazy series of events he gets a ton of ***** out, gets me to 8 poison, folowing which I recall him returning his entire board to his hand and beat him down with my many lords and silvergill. The look on his face was wonderful.
Match: 2-1
Final record: 5-2
I love this list. I am noticing that I am often siding in the last master of Waves, so I might end up moving it back to mainboard, perhaps in place of Kira (so I'll just have 2 Kira in the side) let me know what you guys think and let me know if you have any questions for me!
Essentially the list I'm currently playing, except I play Snags over Pierces. (And my side is a little different.)
How are you liking the 2 Images mainboard?
I go back and forth to be honest. They do some really great things in the deck.
Pros: They act as 2-drop lords 9 and 10 or 2-drop master of waves but not color heavy. They can come down t4 as a second reejery leaving you with 2 mana to go nuts with (this is probably the biggest benefit), It can copy opponents creatures in certain situations (see: the slivers match up above).
Cons: can't reveal for Silvergill or Wanderwine, useless if you don't have another creature down, doesn't trigger reejery, very fragile.
Mainboard they are basically replacing the fourth master of waves and the fourth harbinger. I'm definitely happy with the one less harbinger, as I really don't think they're good enough to be four ofs, and the image can still be a harbinger but still be good against creature-light decks as something else. I have been thinking recently about taking out one of the images for the last master of waves, because I do seem to be siding it in pretty often. I'm just always afraid of not hitting four and being stuck with more than one master of waves in hand. If I did that it would open up another sideboard slot that I could make use of (maybe the fourth hurkyl's recall since they are just so crucial in the affinity and lantern matchups).
Now, you may notice I only have 14 cards in the sideboard there. That's because I showed up to the event late and had to register really fast, and in counting my sideboard for some reason I thought I counted 16 cards, so I cut one (there should be a Kira, Great Glass-Spinner). Turns out there were 15 to begin with and I just miscounted, so I played the event a card short in the side. I'm going off of memory for the match report, so it's not super detailed.
Round 1
Affinity
Game one is an auto loss. In my experience, this is pretty much always the case.
Sidebaording:
+ 2 Chalice
+3 Hurkyl's
+2 Dismember
+1 Master of Waves
- 1 Kira
- 4 Cursecatcher
-1 Spreading Seas
-2 Phantasmal Image
So the cuts got tough after the cursecatchers and Kira, but I really wanted the extra dismembers and the master of waves. If I were to do it again I might have swapped one more seas with an image to maintain threat density, but all in all I suppose it doesn't really matter. So game 2 I'm on the play, I drop t1 vial and chalice on 0 with hurkyl's recall sitting in hand. The rest of the game I pretty much just built up board power and let him smash me till I could recall and kill him in 2 turns. Game 3 I got the double reejery set up with 2 lords and a silvergill in hand. Went off the next turn and finished with hurkyl's to win.
match: 2-1
record: 1-0
Round 2
Taking turns (don't know the official name of this deck)
So for those of you who don't know what this deck is (I certainly didn't) it's mono-blue, and basically just runs 4 Dictate of Kruphix and ever extra turn card it can, and just delay with gigadrowse and Cryptic command until they can chain extra turn cards together and either mill you with Jace Beleren or kill you with Thassa, God of the Sea. I'm not going to force you to live through the boringness that was this matchup, but let's just say I got him to 5 or less both games before he went off.
Match: 0-2
record: 1-1
Round 3
Big Zoo (naya beats)
Homebrew deck, pretty much just rolled over this guy. It ran Wild Nacatls, Wooly Thoctars, and Wilt-leaf lieges. Both games islandwalk and dismsmber just rolled him.
sideboarding:
- 2 Spell pierce
- 3 Cursecatcher
+ 2 Dismember
+ 1 Master of Waves
+ 2 Spellskite
the matchup really isn't more interesting than I built up to Master of Waves for 5+ tokens both games and just stomped him.
Match: 2-0
Record: 2-1
Round 4
Slivers
So, this deck is literally just like merfolk but with less interaction (i.e. spell pierces and what not) and not as abusable with vial. game one he started off with the flying sliver and just built up too fast. He finished me of with CoCo (yes he ran CoCo and Vial) into haste sliver and first strike sliver which put the nail in the coffin.
Sideboarding:
- 1 Kira
- 2 Cursecatcher
+ 2 Dismember
+ 1 Master of Waves
Didn't really know what else to sideboard here. I knew he wasn't running removal, his gameplan was very all in. I thought about chalice but I only saw 2 or 3 one drops and figured that probably didn't warrant it over more threats. Game 2 i had the perfect curve from turn 1 vial into lord, lord, master of waves for the win. Game 3 was insane, but I'll speed you up to the crazy finale. he's at 24 and I'm at 4. I've got a couple lords. I play Phantasmal Image as a copy of his lifelink sliver, and swing with mutavault (who is getting the bonus from my two lords plus lifelink now) and a 3/3 cursecatcher to bring him to 17 and me to 8. I did the math, and with the lord I have in hand I have 17 islandwalk damage on board next turn. He plays a couple creatures, one of which is manaweft sliver, and uses his existing slivers to play more slivers. He has one non-sick creature (this will be relevant in a moment.) He also has vial on 4. he passes turn, I untap and play my lord, activate mutavault. So I now have 17 damage on board (2 4/4 lords, a 4/4 cursecatcher, and a 5/5 mutavault) as well as the lord I just played and the 2/2 lifelink sliver that phantasmal image is a copy of. He asks me to wait when I move to combat, and activates vial putting in a sliver (sorry I don't know the names) that has "slivers you control have [T]: tap target creature. So he has one non-sick creature, so he can tap one guy. All he has to do is tap any of the 4 viable attackers I mentioned above and I don't have lethal any longer. Instead, he targets the Image, which I happily sac and swing for the win. He just didn't do the math and didn't realize I had lethal that turn. In fairness, I probably would have one anyway, because by his own admission his next play was CoCo which, after we finished and he was just looking, would have completely whiffed. So, that was an exciting game 3.
Match: 2-1
Record: 3-1
Round 5
Jund
So, here is why I'm not in the top 8. Because Jund is a really good deck. Game one was a typical jund matchup. I made a crucial misplay not countering turn 1 thoughtseize with cursecatcher. My brain just froze and I didn't think of it, which was the beginning of the end of game one, as he took my only lord (I had mulled to a 5 card lord, cursecatcher, 3 land hand.)
Sideboard:
(this is the first match where I really felt not having that second Kira in my sideboard.)
- 4 Vials
- 2 Phantasmal Image
In case this isn't just accepted strategy at this point, I always side out vials versus Jund. I'm not trying to race them, they don't have counterspells, and playing things at instant speed has little benefit short of trying to be tricksy and dodge burn (not to mention, you want to be able to draw basically nothing but gas in this matchup, and the last thing you want to see mid-game when you're trying to apply pressure is a vial topdeck.)
game 2 I dropped a guy here or there and ended up eventually dropping Master of Waves into Master of Waves and that finished him. Game 3 I mulled to 5 and he had the absolute nuts. I think that even if I had kept a 7 card hand I probably wouldn't have beaten his hand. he immediately thoughtseized my spellskite, and then had a turn 2 goyf turn into a 5/6 by turn three that put a clock on me while he had endless removal for my creatures. There was just no winning that.
Match: 1-2
Record: 3-2
Round 6
RUG Delver?
So I actually never saw a delver, but that's the closest thing I can relate this deck to. It ran monastery Swiftspear and snapcaster and burn and probes, but it also had rancor (which was the only green spell I saw). Dismember and islandwalk did work here, as did master of waves.
Sideboarding:
- 4 Spreading Seas
- 2 Phantasmal Image
- 1 cursecatcher
+ 2 Spellskite
+ 2 Spell Pierce
+ 2 Chalice of the Void
+ 1 master of waves
Chalice of the void on 1 pretty much auto-won me game 2.
match: 2-0
record: 4-2
Last Round
Round 7
Affinity
So here was the final match of the night. The guy I was paired up against was pretty cool, we had talked earlier in the day, so he knew I was playing merfolk and I knew he was playing affinity. when I sat down, he kept saying "sorry man. God that sucks" when I asked why, he went on to explain to me how my deck physically cannot beat his deck, how it is just impossible. I told him I won against affinity round one, to which he replied "that guy was probably a bad magic player." That interaction makes the story that follows just SO much sweeter. So, like i said before, game one is an auto loss and this one was no different. But I played it out.
sideboarding:
- 4 Cursecatcher
- 1 Kira
- 2 Spreading Seas
+ 3 Hurkyl's
+ 2 Chalice
+ 2 dismember
holy ***** was this a wild ride. So game 2 was literally identical to game 2 from my round one match. on the play chalice on 0 with hurkyl's back up screwed him. Game three was insane. I mulled to 5 after getting two unkeepable hands (7 was 5 land, 6 was no land) and I kept the following hand on a prayer: Hurkyl's recall, Lord of Atlantis, Master of the Pearl Trident, Silvergill Adept, Island. I decided to keep because I figured that at worst I might draw the second land in a few turns at which point I can recall and hopefully recover. So I did my mulligan scry to reveal another lord on top which I put to the bottom. He had his usual turn one (something along the lines of land vault skirge, mox opal, go.) I topdecked Vial and played it and passed. he dropped a ton of stuff I can't remember and swung for 1 with skirge. I then topdecked a land and praised whatever deity that had chosen to favor me that day and played silvergill adept, which drew me a dismember. Long story short, through a crazy series of events he gets a ton of ***** out, gets me to 8 poison, folowing which I recall him returning his entire board to his hand and beat him down with my many lords and silvergill. The look on his face was wonderful.
Match: 2-1
Final record: 5-2
I love this list. I am noticing that I am often siding in the last master of Waves, so I might end up moving it back to mainboard, perhaps in place of Kira (so I'll just have 2 Kira in the side) let me know what you guys think and let me know if you have any questions for me!
So I've played a total of 10 matches between three events at my LGS with merfolk now, and I'm currently 8-2. One of those losses was to Junk/Abzan where I kept a two-land hand both games, and both games I ended up with 9+ lands. Nothing to be done about that. The other loss was to Grixis control, went to game three and I mulled to 5 and ended up losing to back-to-back anger of the gods followed by gurmag angler. My local meta is at least 40-50% Grixis, either control or twin. This is lucky for me, since so far I've won 4/5 matches against Grixis (2 against Grixis Twin, 2 against Grixis control, and the one loss to control.) Most of playing against Grixis, in my experience, is how you play more than what you side in. I usually side in my spell pierce's, Kira's, and Spellskite's. But more important is just pacing your game and managing your clock. Several people have recommended to me siding out Vial's in this matchup because they are dead draw's late game, and while that is true, I also find that being able to vial in lords in resposne to removal is crucial. Anyone have any tech that's been super helpful against Grixis?
I did end up making one change in that I switched one Reejery for a singleton Tidebinder in the main.
Round one:
Grixis Control
Game one I kept a hand with cavern and vial and curved out beautifully. Dropping two creatures a turn and both uncounterable between vial and cavern made the game pretty short work. Game 2 I mulled to 5 to keep a three land hand and after trying to mount a comeback I got blown out by Engineered Explosives. Game 3 I stuck Monastery Siege and just beat him down with two lords while keeping a hand of a couple more just in case he managed to land Explosives through my spell pierce.
1-0
Round two:
Junk/Abzan
So this is supposed to be a good matchup for us from what I can tell. Long story short, both games I kept two land hands with vial and then proceeded to see 8 lands over the course of the game. Just got land flooded which allowed him to one-for-one me the whole way. Sucky way to lose.
1-1
Round Three:
Grixis Twin
Game one I managed to drop 3 lords almost immediately. once all my guys were out of bolt/k-command range I just beat away. Game 2 I made the mistake of tapping out for double lords while I had a spell pierce in hand and got blown out by explosives (again). I managed to counter twin when he went for it but he ultimately just beat me down with clique and and a couple exarchs. Game three he mulled to 4 and I mulled to five keeping an island, vial, lord of atlantis, master of the pearl trident, and phantasmal image. I drew the cavern of souls as my next draw and then two more lords and just overwhelmed him right away.
2-1
Round Four
Elves
This was probably my easiest match of the night. Besides the fact that the kid piloting it mentioned to me earlier in the night while I was just chatting with him that this is his first time playing the deck at the event, when I looked through his list afterward it was not the optimized version most people are playing now, but it was pretty close. Game one I vapor snag'd is llanowar elf and then sea's claim'd his forest on the same turn. After that I made pretty short work of just curving out. Game 2 he actually got a ***** ton of dudes down, mostly dorks and stuff though. I managed to tidebinder his archdruid and then spell pierce his coco and that was basically game. I had a reejery with two phantasmal images of it, just forcing him to chump while he topdecked until I finally topdecked a master of the pearl trident to swing through for the win.
3-1
All in all, I was very happy with the way the deck played. Short of the one match where I got mana-flooded twice in a row (which there is nothing I can do about) the deck played almost perfectly. I will note that of the two times I saw siege (once against grixis control and once against junk) Junk managed to just play around it, but part of that was because I wasn't playing a very high creature density due to the mana flooding. I'm also not convinced how much I like Spellskite in the sideboard. Everytime I sided it in and actually saw it, it felt fairly useless, but then I think I only actually saw it once or twice, so I don't know.
Like I said, I'll try to take some notes of the matches to see if I learn anything interesting. I'm sticking with the Siege's for now despite literally everyone advising me not to. They really hurt a lot of decks and they survive wraths to continue protection from being one-for-one'd afterward. I haven't played Modern at this store before so unfortunately I can't tune my sb to the meta, hence why I'm keeping recall in for now. I have really liked having the 3x Image mainboard. Even when he gets blown up the next turn, being able to have lords 5-8 for any give one, or another harbinger, or another master of the waves, I've even one games because it served as more silvergills and gave me the carddraw I needed to hit more gas. There was actually one game against mono-blue tron where I image'd a Platinum angel to survive until I drew snag to bounce his Platinum angel (we were both in the negative.) That last one wasn't so much a reason to run it as it was a cool story. Anyway, wish me luck tonight.
So I've been testing this list a little bit and I've been very happy with the results so far. It's improved a couple matchups I had trouble with in the past (namely anafenza's company and Grixis control) The increased threat density has been a huge help and the added seas are really killer against three color decks. The increased activation of Islandwalk is also really huge. I made some sideboard changes and in the mainboard I dropped 2 land as I've found 19 to really be a sweet spot as I regularly hit the required amount of land but rarely get flooded. I also took out Thassa and put in 3x Phantasmal Image. I really love image and I can't say how many games I've one on the spot by dropping two lords and an image in one turn. I still feel like the side needs some tweaking but otherwise I really like how all-in this is g1 and then it can mix it up for g2.
#1) Experimental Frenzy is really, really good
So, if you haven’t yet, I strongly recommend playing an experimental frenzy deck as soon as you are able to. It almost doesn’t matter the rest of the list or the format, so long as it’s one where you are able to cast Experimental Frenzy. It’s not just that it’s outrageously powerful – allowing you to extend your turn and your deck’s reach for as long as you have mana and available land drops to play things off the top of your deck, essentially turning every deck into a wannabe Storm deck - it’s also outrageously fun. Once you start finding the ways to really abuse Frenzy (Wayward Swordtooth, Treasure Map, and Wand of Vertebrae are all good places to start) it becomes apparent to anyone watching that this card is going to be a player in standard (and potentially older formats) for as long as it is legal for. I personally have played several Experimental Frenzy brews ranging from mono-red to three color, and while I don’t think any version I have played or seen is “THE” list, I do believe it is only a matter of time before the correct combination of cards are found, and when that happens prepare for Frenzy to take over the format. In the meantime, you basically can’t go wrong jamming frenzy in almost any aggressively-oriented deck at this point, as the ability to essentially “refill your hand” in the late game against midrange or control is just invaluable and makes otherwise mediocre decks extraordinary.
#2) Golgari.dec is the safe choice
There’s about a thousand decklists running around online right now, half of them with decent finishes either on MTGO or in a paper event of one sort or another. Week after week, there is almost no consistency in what is the best thing to be doing, and the data is even more corrupted once you start playing lists and you get to see the flaws behind a deck that dominated last weekend or last event. One thing that remains consistent in results, testing, and theory is that Golgari decks are just a really solid choice for standard right now. In a format that is shifting from hyper aggro (mono-red week one) to tempo and control (UR Drakes and Jeskai/Esper Control Week 2) one of the best things you can be doing is just shoving a ton of removal, disruption, and resilient threats all in one deck, and that’s exactly what every Golgari deck aims to do. I don’t think any of the Golgari midrange lists stand out as particularly excellent, and there’s anywhere from a 2-20 card difference between lists depending on how they choose to approach the late-game, but the core principles are always the same: disrupt your opponent by killing their stuff and attacking their hand, then beat them down and keep bringing your dudes back from the graveyard until your opponent is dead. If you’re floundering in indecisiveness about what to play, and don’t want to spend money on a deck that will disappear by the time you sleeve it up, Golgari is what I would recommend. The deck has a ton of redundancy and the strategy has so many options that it should be able to continue adapting to the meta as it moves forward.
#3) Burn is back baby!
I don’t think most people realize how much burn is going on in standard right now, because honestly, it’s a fascinating trend. It’s not that there’s a dedicated burn deck showing up or standing out, but more that so many games of standard are being ended by burn. With Shock, Lighining Strike, Fight with Fire (kicked, of course), Banefire, and – the newest addition – Expansion//Explosion all being highly played, maindeck cards combined with a grindy format, often times, decks that are planning to win one way are instead just casting a banefire for 15 to the opponent’s face, or comboing Shocks and Lightning Strikes off the top with Experimental Frenzy (remember that first point?) when the original plan was to beat down with fatties. It presents an interesting dilemma to the average player, as now they need to keep track of their opponent’s mana lest they die to uncounterable fire whilst they are at - what would normally be – a safe life total. I don’t know for certain how this will change how the format plays moving forward, but I do know that if you’re playing red and you aren’t running some combination of the cards above, you’re cheating yourself out of a nice backup plan for late-game.
#4) The Best Cards are… Unplayable?
Specifically: Nullhide Ferox and Doom Whisperer. What happened? These are two undercosted threats, one of which has hexproof and a “Wilt-leaf Liege” Clause, the other has evasion… make that double evasion… and is a mini-Griselbrand… kinda. So how is it these two cards went from maximum hype to slowly getting cut out of their respective decks? It’s an interesting question, the answer to which is unique to each card. For Nullhide Ferox, being a 6/6 is useless without trample in a format where tokens and decks that recycle creatures (see point #2) are everywhere, and it turns out that “no non-creature spells” clause is more harmful that it seemed at first glance, as Vraska(s) and Vivian Reid are cards you really want access to. In the case of Doom Whisperer, being an undercosted 6/6 flying trampler becomes less relevant when the format is so grindy and slow. On top of that, Doom Whisperer wants you to aggressively surveil using it’s pay 2 life ability, but with Banefire, Fight with Fire, and miscellaneous burn spells everywhere (see #3) you might just end up giving your opponent the easy win. Now, the headline was a bit misleading, because these cards aren’t actually unplayable, they just seem so much worse right now than their objective value in a vacuum would lead you to believe. Doom Whisperer still makes Lyra look like a joke, and Ferox is basically unbeatable for any deck playing Disinformation Campaign. But when these cards aren’t amazing, they are painfully mediocre, something that would have been hard to imagine when we saw their spoilers just a few weeks ago.
Standard is going to keep changing, and one of the worst things you can do is glue yourself to a particular archetype or deck when it hasn’t solidified itself yet as a concrete part of the meta going forward. What you can do, however, is try to learn what fundamental truths about the format exist so you can apply those to your deck building moving forward.
So, I've been working non-stop and haven't had time to post about it, but I went 8-2 at the regionals in Baltimore. I basically ran Nikachu's list except I replaced one harbinger with a vapor snag (couldn't find my fourth harbinger at the last second) and I managed to work 3 chalice into the sideboard. My two losses were to Tron (didn't see a single spreading sea's in 3 games) and to a homebrew R/W deck running stuff like resto-kiki and hero of bladehold (got land screwed one game, land flooded the next and he had two great hands)
These were my matches though:
rd1: Anafenza Company 2-0
rd 2: Junk 2-0
rd 3: Kiki-Company 2-0
rd 4: RW homebrew 0-2
rd 5: Junk 2-1
rd 6: Tron 1-2
rd 7: Mardu Land destruction (homebrew) 2-0
rd 8: Boggles 2-1 (dude miscounted dmg game 1 and scooped even though I was 2 damage short of lethal, gm 3 chalice on 1 sealed it.)
rd 9: Mirror 2-0
rd 10: Jeskai ascendancy: 2-1 (turns out he can't beat chalice on 1 both games.)
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecatcher
4 Master of Waves
3 Harbinger of the Tides
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
Spells
4 Aether Vial
4 Spreading Seas
2 Sea's Claim
2 Spell Pierce
2 Vapor Snag
4 Mutavault
2 Wanderwine Hub
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
10 Island
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Tidebinder Mage
2 Negate
2 Dismember
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Tectonic Edge
Debating on swapping out the Chalices for 2 more counters (either dispel or pierce) and 1 of something else (maybe a fourth harbinger or a third snag) I'm playing at a new store tonight so I suppose I'll just have to see what the meta is like.
I was thinking about running truth in place of the third recall because it also helps in the twin matchup (can hit twin or exarch/pestermite), Since I'm only running 3 dismember it can serve as a 4th removal or as a pseudo recall vs. affinity (obviously far short of the real deal, but more broad in general against the rest of the meta.) I actually went back up to 2 caverns because there is a LOT of Grixis control, grixis twin, and u/r twin in my local meta and I got sick of getting remanded to death any time I didn't hit vial or my one cavern. Honestly I haven't had too much of a problem with color fixing. There have been a couple times I got stuck with an uncastable kira in hand, but I think I'm willing to trade that for the games where I get countered into oblivion. I know everyone has moved away from P Image, and admittedly it is often one of the cards that comes out when sideboarding, but it is so freaking good in the main deck as it's basically 2 more lords 90% of the time, and the rest of the time it's a 2 drop MoW or Harbinger of the tides 4-5. I really miss having Chalice in the side, as I found it just auto-wins some matchups (infect, bogles, affinity, delver, burn, etc.) and it really throws off people who don't expect it, but I don't know where to fit it in the 75.
Affinity is also really popular where I'm at (Baltimore, MD, USA area). I'm going to a pretty major tournament on Sunday and I think this is the list I'm going to bring:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Harbinger of the Tides
2 Phantasmal Image
3 Merrow Reejerey
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
3 Master of Waves
4 Aether Vial
4 Spreading Seas
2 Dismember
2 Spell Pierce
Land
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Wanderwine Hub
4 Mutavault
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
9 Island
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tidebinder Mage
1 Dismember
2 Dispel
1 Echoing Truth
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Negate
3 Tectonic Edge
So this is the list I'm bringing to a pretty major tournament this sunday (local shop, first prize is your choice of a Xbox One or Ps4 and one game of your choice for that system!) Anyway, I'm not totally sold on the side yet but I don't know how I should change it if at all. Thoughts?
I understand if you don't want to take the time to answer all of these questions since I know you've got a video breakdown (I don't have a way to watch the video at work however)
Do you find you have a problem with land screw running 19 lands with 4 master and 2 Kira?
How often do you find yourself missing Cavern of Souls?
I often find that dismember is more harmful than helpful against affinity because it just speeds up their clock, and their power is transferable from creature to creature (via cranial plating or through ravager). What has your experience been siding them in?
In the matchups where you side in 3 negates, do you find yourself stuck in a lot of situations where you have to choose between a creature/other 2 drop and holding up mana for negate? Does the number of times that happens get outweighed by how negate helps the matchups?
These are some of the issues I've had running similar looking lists.
I go back and forth to be honest. They do some really great things in the deck.
Pros: They act as 2-drop lords 9 and 10 or 2-drop master of waves but not color heavy. They can come down t4 as a second reejery leaving you with 2 mana to go nuts with (this is probably the biggest benefit), It can copy opponents creatures in certain situations (see: the slivers match up above).
Cons: can't reveal for Silvergill or Wanderwine, useless if you don't have another creature down, doesn't trigger reejery, very fragile.
Mainboard they are basically replacing the fourth master of waves and the fourth harbinger. I'm definitely happy with the one less harbinger, as I really don't think they're good enough to be four ofs, and the image can still be a harbinger but still be good against creature-light decks as something else. I have been thinking recently about taking out one of the images for the last master of waves, because I do seem to be siding it in pretty often. I'm just always afraid of not hitting four and being stuck with more than one master of waves in hand. If I did that it would open up another sideboard slot that I could make use of (maybe the fourth hurkyl's recall since they are just so crucial in the affinity and lantern matchups).
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecatcher
3 Master of Waves
3 Harbinger of the Tides
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Aether vial
4 Spreading Seas
2 Dismember
2 Spell Pierce
3 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Spell Pierce
2 Dismember
2 Spellskite
2 Hibernation
1 Master of Waves
Now, you may notice I only have 14 cards in the sideboard there. That's because I showed up to the event late and had to register really fast, and in counting my sideboard for some reason I thought I counted 16 cards, so I cut one (there should be a Kira, Great Glass-Spinner). Turns out there were 15 to begin with and I just miscounted, so I played the event a card short in the side. I'm going off of memory for the match report, so it's not super detailed.
Round 1
Affinity
Game one is an auto loss. In my experience, this is pretty much always the case.
Sidebaording:
+ 2 Chalice
+3 Hurkyl's
+2 Dismember
+1 Master of Waves
- 1 Kira
- 4 Cursecatcher
-1 Spreading Seas
-2 Phantasmal Image
So the cuts got tough after the cursecatchers and Kira, but I really wanted the extra dismembers and the master of waves. If I were to do it again I might have swapped one more seas with an image to maintain threat density, but all in all I suppose it doesn't really matter. So game 2 I'm on the play, I drop t1 vial and chalice on 0 with hurkyl's recall sitting in hand. The rest of the game I pretty much just built up board power and let him smash me till I could recall and kill him in 2 turns. Game 3 I got the double reejery set up with 2 lords and a silvergill in hand. Went off the next turn and finished with hurkyl's to win.
match: 2-1
record: 1-0
Round 2
Taking turns (don't know the official name of this deck)
So for those of you who don't know what this deck is (I certainly didn't) it's mono-blue, and basically just runs 4 Dictate of Kruphix and ever extra turn card it can, and just delay with gigadrowse and Cryptic command until they can chain extra turn cards together and either mill you with Jace Beleren or kill you with Thassa, God of the Sea. I'm not going to force you to live through the boringness that was this matchup, but let's just say I got him to 5 or less both games before he went off.
Match: 0-2
record: 1-1
Round 3
Big Zoo (naya beats)
Homebrew deck, pretty much just rolled over this guy. It ran Wild Nacatls, Wooly Thoctars, and Wilt-leaf lieges. Both games islandwalk and dismsmber just rolled him.
sideboarding:
- 2 Spell pierce
- 3 Cursecatcher
+ 2 Dismember
+ 1 Master of Waves
+ 2 Spellskite
the matchup really isn't more interesting than I built up to Master of Waves for 5+ tokens both games and just stomped him.
Match: 2-0
Record: 2-1
Round 4
Slivers
So, this deck is literally just like merfolk but with less interaction (i.e. spell pierces and what not) and not as abusable with vial. game one he started off with the flying sliver and just built up too fast. He finished me of with CoCo (yes he ran CoCo and Vial) into haste sliver and first strike sliver which put the nail in the coffin.
Sideboarding:
- 1 Kira
- 2 Cursecatcher
+ 2 Dismember
+ 1 Master of Waves
Didn't really know what else to sideboard here. I knew he wasn't running removal, his gameplan was very all in. I thought about chalice but I only saw 2 or 3 one drops and figured that probably didn't warrant it over more threats. Game 2 i had the perfect curve from turn 1 vial into lord, lord, master of waves for the win. Game 3 was insane, but I'll speed you up to the crazy finale. he's at 24 and I'm at 4. I've got a couple lords. I play Phantasmal Image as a copy of his lifelink sliver, and swing with mutavault (who is getting the bonus from my two lords plus lifelink now) and a 3/3 cursecatcher to bring him to 17 and me to 8. I did the math, and with the lord I have in hand I have 17 islandwalk damage on board next turn. He plays a couple creatures, one of which is manaweft sliver, and uses his existing slivers to play more slivers. He has one non-sick creature (this will be relevant in a moment.) He also has vial on 4. he passes turn, I untap and play my lord, activate mutavault. So I now have 17 damage on board (2 4/4 lords, a 4/4 cursecatcher, and a 5/5 mutavault) as well as the lord I just played and the 2/2 lifelink sliver that phantasmal image is a copy of. He asks me to wait when I move to combat, and activates vial putting in a sliver (sorry I don't know the names) that has "slivers you control have [T]: tap target creature. So he has one non-sick creature, so he can tap one guy. All he has to do is tap any of the 4 viable attackers I mentioned above and I don't have lethal any longer. Instead, he targets the Image, which I happily sac and swing for the win. He just didn't do the math and didn't realize I had lethal that turn. In fairness, I probably would have one anyway, because by his own admission his next play was CoCo which, after we finished and he was just looking, would have completely whiffed. So, that was an exciting game 3.
Match: 2-1
Record: 3-1
Round 5
Jund
So, here is why I'm not in the top 8. Because Jund is a really good deck. Game one was a typical jund matchup. I made a crucial misplay not countering turn 1 thoughtseize with cursecatcher. My brain just froze and I didn't think of it, which was the beginning of the end of game one, as he took my only lord (I had mulled to a 5 card lord, cursecatcher, 3 land hand.)
Sideboard:
(this is the first match where I really felt not having that second Kira in my sideboard.)
- 4 Vials
- 2 Phantasmal Image
+ 2 spellskite
+ 1 Master of Waves
+ 2 Spell Pierce
+ 1 Dismember
In case this isn't just accepted strategy at this point, I always side out vials versus Jund. I'm not trying to race them, they don't have counterspells, and playing things at instant speed has little benefit short of trying to be tricksy and dodge burn (not to mention, you want to be able to draw basically nothing but gas in this matchup, and the last thing you want to see mid-game when you're trying to apply pressure is a vial topdeck.)
game 2 I dropped a guy here or there and ended up eventually dropping Master of Waves into Master of Waves and that finished him. Game 3 I mulled to 5 and he had the absolute nuts. I think that even if I had kept a 7 card hand I probably wouldn't have beaten his hand. he immediately thoughtseized my spellskite, and then had a turn 2 goyf turn into a 5/6 by turn three that put a clock on me while he had endless removal for my creatures. There was just no winning that.
Match: 1-2
Record: 3-2
Round 6
RUG Delver?
So I actually never saw a delver, but that's the closest thing I can relate this deck to. It ran monastery Swiftspear and snapcaster and burn and probes, but it also had rancor (which was the only green spell I saw). Dismember and islandwalk did work here, as did master of waves.
Sideboarding:
- 4 Spreading Seas
- 2 Phantasmal Image
- 1 cursecatcher
+ 2 Spellskite
+ 2 Spell Pierce
+ 2 Chalice of the Void
+ 1 master of waves
Chalice of the void on 1 pretty much auto-won me game 2.
match: 2-0
record: 4-2
Last Round
Round 7
Affinity
So here was the final match of the night. The guy I was paired up against was pretty cool, we had talked earlier in the day, so he knew I was playing merfolk and I knew he was playing affinity. when I sat down, he kept saying "sorry man. God that sucks" when I asked why, he went on to explain to me how my deck physically cannot beat his deck, how it is just impossible. I told him I won against affinity round one, to which he replied "that guy was probably a bad magic player." That interaction makes the story that follows just SO much sweeter. So, like i said before, game one is an auto loss and this one was no different. But I played it out.
sideboarding:
- 4 Cursecatcher
- 1 Kira
- 2 Spreading Seas
+ 3 Hurkyl's
+ 2 Chalice
+ 2 dismember
holy ***** was this a wild ride. So game 2 was literally identical to game 2 from my round one match. on the play chalice on 0 with hurkyl's back up screwed him. Game three was insane. I mulled to 5 after getting two unkeepable hands (7 was 5 land, 6 was no land) and I kept the following hand on a prayer: Hurkyl's recall, Lord of Atlantis, Master of the Pearl Trident, Silvergill Adept, Island. I decided to keep because I figured that at worst I might draw the second land in a few turns at which point I can recall and hopefully recover. So I did my mulligan scry to reveal another lord on top which I put to the bottom. He had his usual turn one (something along the lines of land vault skirge, mox opal, go.) I topdecked Vial and played it and passed. he dropped a ton of stuff I can't remember and swung for 1 with skirge. I then topdecked a land and praised whatever deity that had chosen to favor me that day and played silvergill adept, which drew me a dismember. Long story short, through a crazy series of events he gets a ton of ***** out, gets me to 8 poison, folowing which I recall him returning his entire board to his hand and beat him down with my many lords and silvergill. The look on his face was wonderful.
Match: 2-1
Final record: 5-2
I love this list. I am noticing that I am often siding in the last master of Waves, so I might end up moving it back to mainboard, perhaps in place of Kira (so I'll just have 2 Kira in the side) let me know what you guys think and let me know if you have any questions for me!
I did end up making one change in that I switched one Reejery for a singleton Tidebinder in the main.
Round one:
Grixis Control
Game one I kept a hand with cavern and vial and curved out beautifully. Dropping two creatures a turn and both uncounterable between vial and cavern made the game pretty short work. Game 2 I mulled to 5 to keep a three land hand and after trying to mount a comeback I got blown out by Engineered Explosives. Game 3 I stuck Monastery Siege and just beat him down with two lords while keeping a hand of a couple more just in case he managed to land Explosives through my spell pierce.
1-0
Round two:
Junk/Abzan
So this is supposed to be a good matchup for us from what I can tell. Long story short, both games I kept two land hands with vial and then proceeded to see 8 lands over the course of the game. Just got land flooded which allowed him to one-for-one me the whole way. Sucky way to lose.
1-1
Round Three:
Grixis Twin
Game one I managed to drop 3 lords almost immediately. once all my guys were out of bolt/k-command range I just beat away. Game 2 I made the mistake of tapping out for double lords while I had a spell pierce in hand and got blown out by explosives (again). I managed to counter twin when he went for it but he ultimately just beat me down with clique and and a couple exarchs. Game three he mulled to 4 and I mulled to five keeping an island, vial, lord of atlantis, master of the pearl trident, and phantasmal image. I drew the cavern of souls as my next draw and then two more lords and just overwhelmed him right away.
2-1
Round Four
Elves
This was probably my easiest match of the night. Besides the fact that the kid piloting it mentioned to me earlier in the night while I was just chatting with him that this is his first time playing the deck at the event, when I looked through his list afterward it was not the optimized version most people are playing now, but it was pretty close. Game one I vapor snag'd is llanowar elf and then sea's claim'd his forest on the same turn. After that I made pretty short work of just curving out. Game 2 he actually got a ***** ton of dudes down, mostly dorks and stuff though. I managed to tidebinder his archdruid and then spell pierce his coco and that was basically game. I had a reejery with two phantasmal images of it, just forcing him to chump while he topdecked until I finally topdecked a master of the pearl trident to swing through for the win.
3-1
All in all, I was very happy with the way the deck played. Short of the one match where I got mana-flooded twice in a row (which there is nothing I can do about) the deck played almost perfectly. I will note that of the two times I saw siege (once against grixis control and once against junk) Junk managed to just play around it, but part of that was because I wasn't playing a very high creature density due to the mana flooding. I'm also not convinced how much I like Spellskite in the sideboard. Everytime I sided it in and actually saw it, it felt fairly useless, but then I think I only actually saw it once or twice, so I don't know.
4x Master of the Pearl Trident
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Merrow Reejery
4x Silvergill Adept
2x Harbinger of the Tides
4x Cursecatcher
2x Master of Waves
3x Phantasmal Image
4x Aether Vial
4x Spreading Seas
2x Sea's Claim
2x Vapor Snag
2x Spell Pierce
Land
4x Mutavault
4x Wanderwine Hub
3x Caver of Souls
8x Island
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Hibernation
2x Spell Pierce
2x Dismember
2x Spellskite
2x Monastery Siege
2x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Master of Waves
Like I said, I'll try to take some notes of the matches to see if I learn anything interesting. I'm sticking with the Siege's for now despite literally everyone advising me not to. They really hurt a lot of decks and they survive wraths to continue protection from being one-for-one'd afterward. I haven't played Modern at this store before so unfortunately I can't tune my sb to the meta, hence why I'm keeping recall in for now. I have really liked having the 3x Image mainboard. Even when he gets blown up the next turn, being able to have lords 5-8 for any give one, or another harbinger, or another master of the waves, I've even one games because it served as more silvergills and gave me the carddraw I needed to hit more gas. There was actually one game against mono-blue tron where I image'd a Platinum angel to survive until I drew snag to bounce his Platinum angel (we were both in the negative.) That last one wasn't so much a reason to run it as it was a cool story. Anyway, wish me luck tonight.
So I've been testing this list a little bit and I've been very happy with the results so far. It's improved a couple matchups I had trouble with in the past (namely anafenza's company and Grixis control) The increased threat density has been a huge help and the added seas are really killer against three color decks. The increased activation of Islandwalk is also really huge. I made some sideboard changes and in the mainboard I dropped 2 land as I've found 19 to really be a sweet spot as I regularly hit the required amount of land but rarely get flooded. I also took out Thassa and put in 3x Phantasmal Image. I really love image and I can't say how many games I've one on the spot by dropping two lords and an image in one turn. I still feel like the side needs some tweaking but otherwise I really like how all-in this is g1 and then it can mix it up for g2.
7 Island
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
4 Wanderwine Hub
Fish
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Harbinger of the Tides
2 Master of Waves
3 Phantasmal Image
4 Æther Vial
4 Spreading Seas
4 Sea's Claim
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Master of Waves
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Hibernation
2 Tidebinder Mage
2 Spell Pierce
2 Swan Song
2 Monastery Siege