You should proxy the LED's and most people who are willing to test legacy with you won't mind. If you decide this is the deck for you, then buy them when you hit a big tourney. You cannot substitute for the core of decks in Legacy.
Out of curiosity, anyone have any links to Merfolk vs omnitell matches? Its surprisingly hard to find any and I was looking to study up on the matchup before I play in a tournament that is heavily populated by omnitell players.
When I played it, which was admittedly a while ago, it was pretty straightforward. Maybe no one bothers to record what they did since it is pretty much the same thing every time? Put pressure, counter anything that lets them put omnicience out or cunning wish. What can they do? Then board in spell pierce, maybe flusterstorm, (arcane lab tech?), (standstill used to be good, too).
Basically, good deck choice for that meta. Watch out for elves!
My main worry about your deck is that it has initial disruption, but then does not kill fast. It also kills lands, but there is no lock. I imagine it would be very frustrating to have combo decks rebuild from no cards and kill you since you give them a lot of turns. Also control decks will stabilize in that time frame. The old way to add speed was with chrome moxes, mirran crusaders or that guy that makes buffed attacking dudes. And as a pox player you know the common lock cards are nether void and trinisphere.
Probably the best way to go midrange would be to "go green" Get some goyfs and abrupt decay and deathrite type stuff.
Cards like smallpox are control cards- if you want to go midrange, pretty much everything needs to be a threat or disruption that doesnt slow you down.
Just a sideboard comment- I prefer spell pierce to Swan song and flusterstorm since they hit JTMS and Jitte in addition to whatever combo cards. I have never had any problem killing combo with merfolk, but I have not played much since people have been playing TNN over standstill.
No one said to play pillar in the main. I am just saying 8x in the 75 might be good. I had 2 buddies piloting Burn in a recent SCG Open and they boarded in their pillars a lot and said they only lost the games they didn't draw them.
Also, with Cosi's Trickster and a meta where next to no basic lands are played, wouldn't Ghost Quarter be a perfectly good budget replacement for Wasteland? I mean, I have the wastelands, but my Manfish deck is being built as a loaner... and loaning Force of Will is making me nervous enough.
I think Spreading seas can cut off colored mana, which can be game ending with a tempo deck.
If you don't want wastelands, i kinda like stifle(and back to basics?) better than the ghost quarter.
Stifle is a consideration in 2 color vs 3 color because saclands are more important to be able to get the correct colors to cast your cards. Also, surgical/extirpate can put the crunch on 3 color.
I realized as I was reading your last post that I do have a one-of utility land: Karakas. Have you already counted the karakas? It can singlehandedly turn the game vs reanimator or sneak/show. Also good against D&T etc. I have been testing a couple isolated chapels, too, which I have been seeing used for kicking gatekeepers and such.
A vial build similar to D&T or the old Deadguy Ale would have more room for utility lands and maybe it might be good even though the move has been away from that sort of build. Double black spells are kinda what makes the deck, though- Liliana, Sinkhole/Hymn, . .
My opinion is that the reason to play this deck is to dodge the non-basic land hate that junkblade and esper run into. For that reason, I would suggest playing enough basics to minimize the effects of Price of Progress, Stifle and wasteland- as a way of offsetting the disadvantage from losing off-color cards like JTMS or Abrupt Decay.
If you were to play with "cute" non-basics, then why not play duel lands for BWG or BWU?
I just wanted to do a quick post mentioning that I took RSI to SCG open LA. It was my first time playing the deck competitively as I usually play B/W Stoneblade. I faced a mostly blue meta and didn't do that great overall, but the matches were close(I even powered through a few FoW with other counters back up). I feel like I mostly lost due to a very poor sideboard plan. I had anticipated lots of Thalia and Teeg and hatched a "fun" manplan. 4 Urami, 4 obliterator, 4 death's shadow, 1 tombstalker, and 2 carpets. It worked very well in testing vs creature hate, but did not help me at all against all the blue I faced.
Just wanted to say I feel the deck still has a lot of potential and I won many games vs decks that are traditionally good vs combo(and then lost the matches due to not having a sideboard against them). Keep up the good discussions here! Feel free to ask any questions, I will be working on a new board plan.
I only caution that you need to be careful when you play Pyrostatic Pillar. Auto-dropping it on turn 2 is not always correct. I played in an SCG event in St. Louis recently. I was playing Affinity and the opponent was playing Burn. He actually lost game 2 because he dropped the Pillar on turn 2. The problem was that I had already dumped out most of my hand. And the Pillar was hurting him worse than me at that point.
I don't think anyone said to play it against affinity. It was a poor choice for him to even side them in instead of smash to smithereens, meltdown, or ratchet bomb/powder keg. Good point on pointing out that they hurt you, though- put them in against cantrips, storm, elf combo and possibly counter-style decks.
Pyrostatic Pillar also hits ponder/brainstorm/top stuff- you should definitely have 4 in your 75.
I have friends that think hellspark is good right now, and have seen good decks with marauders and magma jet. I personally like Skullcrack the best right now because of all the stoneforge and TNN. cave would be interesting to dodge IOK or counterbalance, but volcanic fallout dodges counterbalance(and is instant) anyway, so .. .
When I played it, which was admittedly a while ago, it was pretty straightforward. Maybe no one bothers to record what they did since it is pretty much the same thing every time? Put pressure, counter anything that lets them put omnicience out or cunning wish. What can they do? Then board in spell pierce, maybe flusterstorm, (arcane lab tech?), (standstill used to be good, too).
Basically, good deck choice for that meta. Watch out for elves!
Probably the best way to go midrange would be to "go green" Get some goyfs and abrupt decay and deathrite type stuff.
Cards like smallpox are control cards- if you want to go midrange, pretty much everything needs to be a threat or disruption that doesnt slow you down.
Just some of my thoughts . . .
I think Spreading seas can cut off colored mana, which can be game ending with a tempo deck.
If you don't want wastelands, i kinda like stifle(and back to basics?) better than the ghost quarter.
BTW, how does someone named Mongers 'n Deeds not play Green in this deck? Deathrite and Abrupt Decay?
In a related story, I cannot think of any card that is worse for BW control to face than Deed. Good think Nic Fit is in remission.
I realized as I was reading your last post that I do have a one-of utility land: Karakas. Have you already counted the karakas? It can singlehandedly turn the game vs reanimator or sneak/show. Also good against D&T etc. I have been testing a couple isolated chapels, too, which I have been seeing used for kicking gatekeepers and such.
A vial build similar to D&T or the old Deadguy Ale would have more room for utility lands and maybe it might be good even though the move has been away from that sort of build. Double black spells are kinda what makes the deck, though- Liliana, Sinkhole/Hymn, . .
If you were to play with "cute" non-basics, then why not play duel lands for BWG or BWU?
Oops. Well, I would disagree with siding it in vs affinity(meltdown, smash or keg) or NO elves(bridge, searing X, cage). . .
Just wanted to say I feel the deck still has a lot of potential and I won many games vs decks that are traditionally good vs combo(and then lost the matches due to not having a sideboard against them). Keep up the good discussions here! Feel free to ask any questions, I will be working on a new board plan.
I don't think anyone said to play it against affinity. It was a poor choice for him to even side them in instead of smash to smithereens, meltdown, or ratchet bomb/powder keg. Good point on pointing out that they hurt you, though- put them in against cantrips, storm, elf combo and possibly counter-style decks.
I have friends that think hellspark is good right now, and have seen good decks with marauders and magma jet. I personally like Skullcrack the best right now because of all the stoneforge and TNN. cave would be interesting to dodge IOK or counterbalance, but volcanic fallout dodges counterbalance(and is instant) anyway, so .. .