The biggest downside of your change is the Lifeloss from the new Manabase.
Scapeshift and Burn get harder with that.
So at best, this is a Metagame decision you have to make. Do you consider Burn a real contender? Then you probably don't want it. If you think the Meta is overrun with 3color-Fairdecks, then i'd say, its a good choice!
Against Burn and aggressive decks in general, the life loss may end up being mitigated by the upgrade of bolt over Dismember/Vapor Snag. But yeah, Blood Moon is a dead card against a lot of decks so it's definitely meta-dependent.
What about Blood Moon? The red splash also allows for Lightning Bolt of course. Merfolk already attacks the opponent's mana base with Spreading Seas and the combination of the two can hose an opponent's mana base completely with proper sequencing. The interaction with Master of Waves seems nice as you can cut off the colors of non-red removal.
Big downside is Twin matchup and I haven't tested this at all beyond a handful of casual games, but it's a powerful card that Merfolk can theoretically play and hasn't to my knowledge considered beyond a brief aside from Travis Woo. Probably isn't worth it but I wanted to bounce it off some people who play the deck.
Technically "then" in the last sentence of the reminder text means "after you've had the ability to cast the targeted spell from your graveyard for its mana cost." Normally this isn't an issue since a typical card w/flashback has the structure of "Flashback [mana cost] (reminder text)." The exile clause is much more clearly a function of casting the spell since you always have the ability to pay the flashback cost, meaning there is never a viable time to exile the card "after you've had the ability to cast it for FB cost." With Snappy, there is another viable--and more literal--candidate for the time that "then" is referencing.
I realize that space constraints prevent truly technical wording and that the ultimate message is to just know the rules, but it seems to me that the reminder text should have either been altered slightly on Snapcaster in particular to say "if you do," instead of "then." There's room for that.
This isn't a rules question per se as I know how the card works. However, I find the reminder text on Snapcaster Mage to be misleading. It reads "When Snapcaster Mage enters the battlefield, target instant or sorcery card in a graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may cast that card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)"
Now, if you know the mechanic flashback, there is no issue. However, wouldn't a literal reading w/o this prior knowledge indicate that a card targeted by Snapcaster Mage's ability would be exiled regardless of whether or not the targeted card is cast? So many magic cards contain the clause "if you do," but why doesn't Snapcaster? Am I missing something?
I could well be wrong and I hope I am wrong because the card seems sweet/interesting/fun but I don't think it's better than Cursecatcher. The fact that you can't activate its ability and attack on the same turn is probably a deal-breaker and I'm not sure the ability is even good anyway. Trading 2-3 points of damage and 1 mana for card parity with a little bit of selection is probably not where Merfolk wants to be since our opponents' cards are quite often better than ours. Certainly worth testing and, again, I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not optimistic.
Was playing a land destruction deck for fun while watching this weekends scg open. I noticed near the end of the game the guy had 4 cards in his graveyard, only 2 lands. I had 3 encroaching wastes in my GY (so at least 3 dead lands from him) so I checked the game log :
Woda puts Temple of Mystery from graveyard into his library at position 45.
Woda puts Breeding Pool from graveyard into his library at position 46.
Woda puts Steam Vents from graveyard into his library at position 47.
Woda puts Courser of Kruphix from graveyard on bottom of his library.
So I ask him about it :
[15:14]  KOrr: so whats the point of cheating on cockatrice,and not destroying lands but instead putting them back into library
[15:15]  Woda: wtf are you talking about
I flooded, tough luck against a silly destroyland deck
I play a ramp deck for fcks sake
[15:16]  KOrr: Woda puts Temple of Mystery from graveyard into his library at position 45.
Woda puts Breeding Pool from graveyard into his library at position 46.
Woda puts Steam Vents from graveyard into his library at position 47.
right there wher eyou were putting lands from GY into library
[15:16]  Woda: thats when I scryed ********
[15:17]  KOrr: no
it says FROM graveyard TO library
and those 3 were backto back
you put 3 in library at once
[15:17]  Woda: I did not
[15:17]  KOrr: I have the whole game log lol
[15:20]  Woda: even if that were true, position 45 is bottom of library, what would gain?
[15:21]  KOrr: its cheating regardless
any shuffle affects keep you from losing land
[15:21]  Woda: you're paranoid and looking for answers in the wrong place, man
your deck sucks, that's why you lose
[15:22]  KOrr: lol no
I noticed you had 4 cards in gy
2 lands, to my 3 encroaching wastes
which meant you were putting cards from GY to library
and if my deck sucks so bad, why did you feel the need to cheat?
[15:24]  Woda: I DIDNT DAMMIT
[15:24]  KOrr: lol I just pasted where you put cards into your library from graveyard
So of course theres tons of denial, and oh my deck is crap, etc, etc.
Too funny to not post.
To be honest, that sounds much more like a misclick than cheating. He didn't have to be a jerk about it, but I'm guessing it wasn't intentional. Plus, you overreacted tremendously by even mentioning it. From the sound of his deck, the only card that could make him shuffle his library is Sylvan Primordial which would end the game against a Land Destruction deck regardless of him being subsequently more likely to draw lands.
Sounds to me like you were taking something that had literally a 0% chance of mattering in a game that doesn't matter in the first place far too seriously.
Same idea, different story: guy, three turns after the fact, tried to say I should get a loss because I didn't target anything of his with Ral Zarek's +1 when he was tapped out.
I've been getting completely rolled by merfolk. Are there any sideboard changes that we can use besides lavamancer? I feel like double red for anger or fallout is rough on the mana.
As a Merfolk player, I'm not at all worried about Anger or Fallout. Merfolk get out of Fallout range very quickly (and often at instant speed thanks to Aether Vial) and can do the same to Anger or just counter it. 1 mana removal spells like bolt and flame slash are much more effective since the lords are what you really need to kill. The versions with Goblin Guide are much tougher because UR can much more easily win the race.
Coralhelm Commander was a bad mainboard card until Kira started making the mainboard. Now that this is a thing, he's a good MB card again.
I disagree. First of all, neither card is ever more than a 2x so the chances of having both in a given game is very low. That is to say, you can't expect to protect Commander with Kira. Second, the most natural predator of Commander is Abrupt Decay which Kira doesn't stop anyway. He's a trump card against decks without much removal and a mana sink against everyone else. If you have better things to do with your mana than level CC, then he's going to be very good as simply a 2/2 Merfolk for UU b/c that means you're playing lords/Master of Waves.
Also, coralhelm commander in the main, no longer a thing? Time to cut one or both and replace with...tidebinder, or another merror reejerey and a tidebinder?
First of all, congratulations on doing well at the side event. Regarding Coralhelm Commander, I hated him at first as well and if you are expecting enough zoo in the meta, Tidebinder Mage is amazing. Against an unknown meta, I'd stick with Commander, even though the card has fallen out of favor with a lot of Fish players. He gives us a fighting chance G1 against affinity with his flying, is a major threat on his own (rare in Merfolk) and is an awesome mana sink, especially since the level cost is colorless. I like the card more and more each time I play with it.
And the Merfolk Assassin, adorable though it may be, is almost certainly not worth the spot. It's a pre-ban relic from when Merfolk was a more popular deck. It should definitely be cut, probably for the third Hurkyl's Recall.
I don't have my decklist with me right now but in general, what comes OUT for game 2/3 against Birthing Pod? I know what goes in from the sideboard...just not sure what to remove.
This is probably pretty obvious, but Cursecatcher should be the first to go.
The thing with the cavern of souls--I think you really only need to draw one or an aether vial pre-board to get under control just fine most of the time. 4 reejery is interesting, must be using them for tempo, note the lack of cursecatcher and full playset of phantasmal image. double shackles is kind of interesting, I'd consider one in the board. This is the first time I've seen a full four recall in the board too. My guess is that this is a test list that got lucky but who knows, the number seem everywhere or heavy handed. Then again...top 8.
In other peoples experience do you find that people board in artifact hate for your vials?
The full 4xRecall in the board isn't that uncommon and would be a lot more common if the card weren't so expensive on MTGO. It's simply the strongest play against affinity and that deck is common enough and obviously such a bad match-up that 4xRecall is the way to go.
And I'm totally fine with opponents bringing in artifact hate since it only hits Vial. Happens from time to time but not very often. My guess is that artifact hate only comes in to replace bad maindeck cards in decks with no other good SB cards, unless they are a deck that is hurt by spellskite/relic/cage and expect those SB cards.
For a long time, I've stuck very strictly to the idea that 23 was the minimum number of Merfolk for Adept. I think there was some discussion of this a while back in this thread that didn't get too far. Anyway, a lot of the recent lists here, including the list from the CFB event, seem to be trending towards 21. Has anyone had problems at 21?
I'm not a huge fan of Kira maindeck except as a meta-call. The body isn't aggressively costed enough to make up for the fact she often does what a counterspell would do against removal but is dead against the increasing number of unfair decks.
So, when do the quarterfinals start? Also, will the streaming on youtube be working again?
Can't answer you about the stream (it was iffy for me all day) but quarterfinals start at 4 AM eastern time tomorrow morning.
Glad to hear a Merfolk deck top 16'd (if true). People have been writing the deck off all weekend and I don't see why. With the exception of affinity, I can't think of any particularly bad matchups amongst the most popular decks. And Blue Moon seems like an essential bye for Merfolk. Counterspells and non-basic land hate are dead against Merfolk and that's all Blue Moon is.
On the bright side, if ppl start playing this "Blue Moon" deck, it seems like it'd be a fantastic matchup for merfolk. I've never played against it, but theoretically non-basic land hate and counterspells are not good against merfolk.
Sorry about that. Maybe I don't know how to use the search function but it just showing one post from 2012.
Against Burn and aggressive decks in general, the life loss may end up being mitigated by the upgrade of bolt over Dismember/Vapor Snag. But yeah, Blood Moon is a dead card against a lot of decks so it's definitely meta-dependent.
Big downside is Twin matchup and I haven't tested this at all beyond a handful of casual games, but it's a powerful card that Merfolk can theoretically play and hasn't to my knowledge considered beyond a brief aside from Travis Woo. Probably isn't worth it but I wanted to bounce it off some people who play the deck.
I realize that space constraints prevent truly technical wording and that the ultimate message is to just know the rules, but it seems to me that the reminder text should have either been altered slightly on Snapcaster in particular to say "if you do," instead of "then." There's room for that.
Now, if you know the mechanic flashback, there is no issue. However, wouldn't a literal reading w/o this prior knowledge indicate that a card targeted by Snapcaster Mage's ability would be exiled regardless of whether or not the targeted card is cast? So many magic cards contain the clause "if you do," but why doesn't Snapcaster? Am I missing something?
Foundry Street Denizen saw plenty of play prior to the printing of Rabblemaster.
To be honest, that sounds much more like a misclick than cheating. He didn't have to be a jerk about it, but I'm guessing it wasn't intentional. Plus, you overreacted tremendously by even mentioning it. From the sound of his deck, the only card that could make him shuffle his library is Sylvan Primordial which would end the game against a Land Destruction deck regardless of him being subsequently more likely to draw lands.
Sounds to me like you were taking something that had literally a 0% chance of mattering in a game that doesn't matter in the first place far too seriously.
Same idea, different story: guy, three turns after the fact, tried to say I should get a loss because I didn't target anything of his with Ral Zarek's +1 when he was tapped out.
As a Merfolk player, I'm not at all worried about Anger or Fallout. Merfolk get out of Fallout range very quickly (and often at instant speed thanks to Aether Vial) and can do the same to Anger or just counter it. 1 mana removal spells like bolt and flame slash are much more effective since the lords are what you really need to kill. The versions with Goblin Guide are much tougher because UR can much more easily win the race.
I disagree. First of all, neither card is ever more than a 2x so the chances of having both in a given game is very low. That is to say, you can't expect to protect Commander with Kira. Second, the most natural predator of Commander is Abrupt Decay which Kira doesn't stop anyway. He's a trump card against decks without much removal and a mana sink against everyone else. If you have better things to do with your mana than level CC, then he's going to be very good as simply a 2/2 Merfolk for UU b/c that means you're playing lords/Master of Waves.
First of all, congratulations on doing well at the side event. Regarding Coralhelm Commander, I hated him at first as well and if you are expecting enough zoo in the meta, Tidebinder Mage is amazing. Against an unknown meta, I'd stick with Commander, even though the card has fallen out of favor with a lot of Fish players. He gives us a fighting chance G1 against affinity with his flying, is a major threat on his own (rare in Merfolk) and is an awesome mana sink, especially since the level cost is colorless. I like the card more and more each time I play with it.
And the Merfolk Assassin, adorable though it may be, is almost certainly not worth the spot. It's a pre-ban relic from when Merfolk was a more popular deck. It should definitely be cut, probably for the third Hurkyl's Recall.
This is probably pretty obvious, but Cursecatcher should be the first to go.
The full 4xRecall in the board isn't that uncommon and would be a lot more common if the card weren't so expensive on MTGO. It's simply the strongest play against affinity and that deck is common enough and obviously such a bad match-up that 4xRecall is the way to go.
And I'm totally fine with opponents bringing in artifact hate since it only hits Vial. Happens from time to time but not very often. My guess is that artifact hate only comes in to replace bad maindeck cards in decks with no other good SB cards, unless they are a deck that is hurt by spellskite/relic/cage and expect those SB cards.
I'm not a huge fan of Kira maindeck except as a meta-call. The body isn't aggressively costed enough to make up for the fact she often does what a counterspell would do against removal but is dead against the increasing number of unfair decks.
Can't answer you about the stream (it was iffy for me all day) but quarterfinals start at 4 AM eastern time tomorrow morning.
Glad to hear a Merfolk deck top 16'd (if true). People have been writing the deck off all weekend and I don't see why. With the exception of affinity, I can't think of any particularly bad matchups amongst the most popular decks. And Blue Moon seems like an essential bye for Merfolk. Counterspells and non-basic land hate are dead against Merfolk and that's all Blue Moon is.